Missouri man accused of exchanging child porn with Vancouver child

A 26-year-old Joplin, Mo., man faces a federal child pornography distribution charge in his home state after he was caught allegedly exchanging sexually explicit images online with a child in Vancouver.

Kaleb Wilson was charged Friday in U.S. District Court in Springfield, Mo., according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri.

According to an affidavit filed in support of the charge, Instagram submitted a tip May 5, 2017, to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about a user, later identified as Wilson, who had uploaded multiple images of child pornography to the social media platform in March of that year.

Then in August 2018, a Vancouver Police Department detective contacted the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crime Task Force and asked for help with a separate investigation involving Wilson, prosecutors said.

“The Vancouver investigation was launched when a resident of that jurisdiction reported that her minor child had been exchanging sexually explicit messages and images with (Wilson),” prosecutors said.

Wilson allegedly had been communicating with the child in Vancouver using the messaging app Kik. Wilson and the child “exchanged pornographic photos with each other” from December 2016 until August 2018, according to the affidavit.

The case is being pursued as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.