Myrtle Beach Man’s Facebook Pictures and Email Accounts Tie Him to Child Pornography, Arrested on Federal Child Porn Charges

Earlier this year, federal investigators in Boston teamed up with Facebook to help identify a sexual predator, using facial recognition software from the social media company to find the identities of the predator and his victim. Now, a Myrtle Beach man has been arrested on federal child pornography charges.

Joseph Robert Smith has been arrested and is currently being held at the J. Reuben Long Detention Center, on one felony charge of sexual exploitation of a minor first degree. He was arrested on September 25th after Facebook’s facial recognition software uncovered the identities of Smith and his victim through tagged photos on the social media site.

“In the past, we’d look at telephone records and email records,” said Dean Secor, an assistant U.S. Attorney in Charleston and coordinator of the agency’s Project Safe Child program in South Carolina. “Now, more and more, you’re seeing subpoenas for social media accounts. We’re utilizing information from social networks on practically any kind of case.”

According to reports, Homeland Security in Boston was working on a federal child porn case after discovering exploitative images on a hard drive seized in that city. Although the images had been deleted, some of a computer’s information remains stored on the hard drive so agents were able to use forensic technology to retrieve them. The agents discovered that some of the images retrieved from the hard drive used file named that were consistent with images uploaded to Facebook. The investigators contacted Facebook, and officials with the social media giant agreed to use the site’s facial recognition software to link the face of the female child from the child porn images to a girl whose face was “very similar in appearance to the child victim.” Facebook officials provided investigators with the name and contact information for the woman who had uploaded the identifying images of the girl to Facebook. She is not a suspect in the case, and the images on her page were not explicit.

Investigators tracked the woman to the Myrtle Beach area, and used her Facebook account to further identify any potential male acquaintances, along with DMV driver’s license photos, to track Smith down as the perpetrator, based on his face in the pornographic images.

Officials obtained a search warrant for Smith’s home and computer on September 24th, and arrested Smith at his house. He admitted that he had produced the pornographic images, and shared them via email with individuals he met on a foreign-based image hosting site. He had two email accounts he used to distribute the images.

Facebook spokesman Matt Steinfeld said that the social media company does not have a special relationship with law enforcement, and treats police requests the same as requests from private individuals, although the company makes exceptions when there is immediate risk or danger to a child, such as the federal child pornography case, or when an individual is in imminent danger of death or serious injury.

The Strom Law Firm Can Defend Federal Child Pornography Charges

Have you been given a child pornography charge? Child Pornography Charges are very serious. Many people don’t know this, but getting charged with these type of charges can ruin both your personal and professional reputation.

Some of the most common sex crime charges are:

• Distribution of child pornography
• Production of child pornography
• Use of child pornography
• Possession of child pornography
• Sex with a minor
• Sexual assault

All computers have IP address that can be used to identify whether you have accessed child pornography from your computer. Also, you could get caught with child pornography if you have child pornography on your hard drive and have your computer repaired by a technician.

Being caught with child pornography on your computer usually implies that you intentionally downloaded the pornography and purposefully viewed it. The defense attorneys at the Strom Law Firm will aggressively fight to defend your rights and provide you with the best defense against federal child pornography and sex crime charges. We offer free, confidential consultations to discuss the facts of your case, so contact us today at 803.252.4800.