French Lick man arrested for child sexual abuse materials
FRENCH LICK, Ind. (WISH) — Indiana State Police troopers on Wednesday arrested a French Lick man for possession of child sexual abuse materials, state police said in a news release Friday.
Jeremy David Cox was arrested and preliminarily charged with possession and/or distribution of child pornography, a level 5 felony.
This comes after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sent Indiana State Police multiple tips about Cox.
ISP began investigating Cox in May. They served a search warrant on his home on Wednesday, and he was later arrested without incident at another location.
Cox was taken to the Orange County Jail. Investigators expect there to be additional charges.
Members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and the French Lick Police Department assisted an ISP task force.
Child sexual abuse materials, or CSAM, is the updated term for child pornography.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) explains the change in language on its website.
“NCMEC chooses to refer to these images as Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) to most accurately reflect what is depicted – the sexual abuse and exploitation of children,” the group explained.
“Not only do these images and videos document victims’ exploitation and abuse, but when these files are shared across the internet, child victims suffer re-victimization each time the image of their sexual abuse is viewed. In a recent survey led by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, 67% of CSAM survivors said the distribution of their images impacts them differently than the hands-on abuse they suffered because the distribution never ends and the images are permanent.”
The website also explains that it does use the term child pornography in the legal system.
“United States federal law defines child pornography as any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a minor (a person less than 18 years old),” the website said.
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