In September of 2023, the Charles County Sheriff’s Office received a Cyber tip, which was reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) by a cloud storage provider. The tip outlined a user who was storing child pornographic files in their cloud storage account. Detectives initiated an investigation.
Soon after, the Charles County Sheriff’s Office received a Cyber tip, which was reported to NCMEC by a social media provider. The tip outlined an account holder who was uploading child pornographic files to their social media account and was trading and selling child pornographic files using the social media platform.
Leads in both cyber tips revealed they were related and led detectives to the same residence. A 16-year-old juvenile was identified as the suspect. A search and seizure warrant was served at the residence, at which time several electronic devices were recovered. The CCSO’s Digital Forensics Unit found further evidence of the possession and distribution of child pornography.
On December 23, 2024, in accordance with Maryland law, the suspect was charged on a juvenile offense report with five counts of possession and 33 counts of distribution of child pornography.
In the cases in which the suspect was charged, the images recovered showed children around the age of 10 years old; there is no indication that any of the images recovered in this investigation depict children from our area. Detective Horrocks is investigating.
The CCSO urges parents to learn the signs of online exploitation and the terms affiliated with sending, buying, and selling images online and through social media. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s Net Smart program helps parents and caregivers identify trends and offers prevention resources to address the evolving needs of kids and teens online.
NetSmartz is NCMEC’s online safety education program. It provides age-appropriate videos and activities to help teach children to be safer online, to prevent victimization, and how to make safer choices on and offline.
