A high school teacher in Chiang Mai has been charged with taking pornographic photos and videos of his male students.

The suspect, identified only as Yos, 53, was caught on Friday outside a school in tambon Tha Sala in Muang district.

Police seized a hard drive containing 14 gigabytes of pornographic photos and videos from the suspect.

According to police, the suspect persuaded dozens of his male students to agree to have nude photos and videos taken, which he stored on the drive.

The suspect reportedly admitted that he took the photos and videos for personal entertainment. He said he did not sell or use them to exploit his students.

However, police discovered that Mr Yos had uploaded many pornographic photos and videos depicting young boys online.

The suspect reportedly said the boys had consented to posing for the pictures and videos.

Police said there was no evidence of the teacher threatening the students into posing.

Police are now in the process of establishing how many students were involved. Some of the photos and videos had been on the hard drive for a long time and more time would be needed to investigate, they said.

Aside from being a teacher, Mr Yos has been a football coach at the school for more than 20 years.