Kik – If there is something

Last July, Kegan Kline of Peru, Indiana was sentenced to 40 years in prison on 25 counts ranging from child exploitation and possession of child pornography to obstruction of justice. During the Kline investigation, it was revealed that he had communicated through social media with 14-year-old Liberty German of Delphi, Indiana in the days leading up to the murders of Liberty and her 13-year-old friend Abigail Williams in February of 2017. According to 13WTHR, “Court documents show Kline saying he would talk to girls, even if they were under the age of 16, and that he found them on Instagram and then told them to message him on Snapchat. Kline allegedly claimed to have received pictures from all of the girls he chatted with and had saved them.” The investigation revealed Snapchat was Kegan Kline’s preferred platform for soliciting sexual abuse material from underage girls.

As this blog has previously pointed out, Snapchat comes up time and again as the platform of choice among Indiana predators apprehended by state and federal law enforcement. Undoubtedly, a little research would likely reveal that the Snapchat platform is quite popular among child predators outside the Hoosier state as well. With that in mind, a reasonable person might assume that if a company’s product is routinely utilized for victimizing children, and if that company’s name keeps appearing in news item after news item as the go to platform for perverted criminal low-lifes, then that company might seek to eliminate the problem, if for no other reason than to quash the endless stream of bad publicity. However, it’s hard to see where Snapchat is doing anything of the sort.

On November 11, Westfield, Indiana police arrested 20-year-old Benjamin Owen Rollo of Westfield and charged him with seven felony counts, including child molestation, sexual misconduct with a minor and possession of child pornography. According to 13WTHR, Rollo “is accused of using a Snapchat account to pressure young girls into meeting up with him, or into sending explicit photos.”

If you thought Snapchat alerted authorities to Rollo’s predatory behavior on its platform, you would be wrong. The mother of a 12-year-old victim discovered the messages on her daughter’s phone and contacted Westfield police.

As 13WTHR reports, “The victim’s mother learned of the attack by confiscating her daughter’s cellphone, where she found messages between her daughter and friends about the attack. The victim told friends she snuck out with a friend to meet Rollo on July 22, 2022. Rollo allegedly drove to the friend’s home, then drove the victim and the friend to Grand Park.

“When the victim asked where they were going, Rollo would not say.

“Rollo allegedly forced the 12-year-old in the back of a car during the attack. The victim deleted Rollo’s contact from her Snapchat in the hours after.

“Through her Snapchat account, investigators found Rollo had dozens more victims throughout the area, and that he used his Snapchat account, ‘johnny.backer,’ to target young girls.

“Police served a search warrant to his home in West Lafayette on Nov. 11, and he consented to a police interview.

“When asked about photos and images sent and received, specifically on Snapchat, Rollo advised he has asked young girls and teens for explicit images and has sent his own images, ‘15-20 times.’ Rollo also confirmed to police 12- and 13-year-old females are who he is attracted to. When asked further, he advised that he did not know, it is just ‘what he’s into.’

“His Snapchat account also revealed he raped a 14-year-old girl who he picked up in Carmel in December 2022. Multiple messages reportedly showed Rollo telling the girl what happened was not rape, and to please delete their interactions.

“Rollo confirmed the “johnny.backer” account was his secondary account, because he was not comfortable using his real name. While en route to the Hamilton County Jail, detectives asked Rollo how many images were on his phone of younger girls — he said well over 1,000 images.”

While it may be the case that Snapchat has no way of identifying the individual behind an anonymous account, and maybe they’re unable to determine in what area of the country the messages originate, surely the content of these messages should be cause for alarm and referral to federal authorities. It seems likely that some of the victims probably used their real names and locations, would it not be possible for Snapchat to notify local police that there is a predator in their midst? Rollo was able to determine that the girls he was messaging were local. Why can’t Snapchat identify potentially criminal and predatory behavior and notify the appropriate law enforcement agencies?

It would be nice if Rollo was the only serial Snapchat predator terrorizing tweens and teens in the Hoosier state. Then everyone could breathe a sigh of relief that finally the Snapchat rapist was behind bars and everyone could feel safe again.

For immediate release, November 14, 2023, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Indiana:

“Jacob Glenn, 26, of Cicero, Indiana, has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of a child.

“According to court documents, Jacob Glenn used Snapchat to communicate with girls between 13- and 15-years-old, falsely claiming to be a teen boy and offering to purchase nicotine or vape pens in exchange for sex. Glenn’s Snapchat username, ‘theplugfogshyde’ was intended to indicate that he could obtain vape pens for others he met online.

“On two occasions in 2021, Glenn coerced and enticed a girl between 12- and 15-years-old, to sneak out of her home after midnight to get vapes from him, including on Christmas Eve. Glenn picked the child up and drove her to a nearby truck stop where he told her that he would not accept cash for the vapes. Instead, Glenn stated that they could work out a “deal” where she could pay him with sex. Glenn picked up the same child again on January 17, 2022, and coerced and enticed her to engage in sex acts in exchange for vape pens. He used his phone to record the sexual conduct he engaged in with the child and instructed her to not tell anyone about his abuse. Glenn later used Snapchat to send a copy of the child sexual abuse video to two other minor girls.

“Glenn engaged in a similar course of criminal conduct with another minor girl he met on Snapchat between December 2021 and January 2022. The second victim was less than 14-years-old. On January 9, 2022, after a conversation via Snapchat, Glenn picked the second victim up near her home, drove her to a nearby truck stop, and engaged in sexual conduct in exchange for vape pens. Glenn also attempted to convince a child who was a friend of the second victim to engage in sex in exchange for vapes, but they did not meet in person.

“A law enforcement review of Glenn’s Snapchat account found conversations between Glenn and multiple other girls between thirteen and fifteen years old. In some of these conversations, Glenn offered nicotine or alcohol in exchange for sex or nude images.”

Two serial Snapchat predators, who were practically neighbors, locked up within days of one another. Surely now the children of Hamilton and Marion counties in Indiana can use Snapchat without being solicited for sex.

For immediate release, October 19, 2023, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Indiana:

“Isaiah Austin, 21, of Indianapolis, Indiana, was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to coercion and enticement of two minors while required to register as a sex offender, and illegally possessing a firearm.

“In February 2021, Marion County probation officers conducted a compliance visit on Austin at his home. During their search, officers located a cell phone which contained multiple images and videos of child sexual abuse, as well as images of Austin holding firearms. Officers also uncovered text and Snapchat messages between Austin and a 14-year-old girl, beginning in early January 2021, less than a month after he was released from custody. In these text and Snapchat messages, Austin detailed sexual acts he wanted to engage in with the child and instructed her to send him sexually explicit images of herself.”

So in one small geographic area of central Indiana, during a time span of just a few weeks in the fall of 2023, three men were either arrested or convicted of child sexual abuse and/or child exploitation, and they all utilized the social media platform Snapchat as a tool to facilitate their depraved, criminal deeds. That’s without even mentioning another Westfield man who got 38 years for similar offenses made possible by the social media platform Kik. Maybe central Indiana is just a hotbed of child predators, but it’s probably more likely that this is happening in hundreds, if not thousands, of communities around the country. Setting aside the disturbing question of how there can be so many sexual deviants preying on American children, why is eliminating this threat not priority number one with Snapchat and other social media companies?

In testimony Tuesday before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on social media and the teen mental health crisis, Arturo Bejar, formerly of Facebook and Instagram testified that a survey of 13-15-year-olds on Instagram revealed that 13% of respondents had received unwanted sexual advances in the last seven days. The number is astounding. In any seven day period, a teenager has about a one in eight chance of being approached by a predator on Instagram. Given enough seven day cycles, it is a near certainty that a young person will receive unwanted sexual advances about every two months or so. It should be clear to anyone that social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Kik are cesspools of child exploitation and predatory grooming. Making these platforms safer for young people should be the top goal of executives at these companies above all other considerations. If a skate park or an arcade or a coffee bar existed where every week kids had a one in eight chance of receiving unwanted sexual advances, that place would be shut down. Social media companies should face the same threat.

Anyone who has followed the Delphi murder case and is familiar with the Kegan Kline police interview transcript might understandably wonder what the hell is going on with these social media messaging apps. According to media outlets, Snapchat and Kik were the preferred avenues for Kegan Kline to connect with underage victims and solicit illegal images. Well, it turns out Kline is not the only predator who has had success utilizing these platforms to victimize children. In fact, the modus operandi is so common in the State of Indiana alone, that one wonders if there isn’t a playbook these criminal deviants follow.

A June press release from the Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana offers up two such graduates of the Snapchat and Kik school of child exploitation and victimization. The June 17, 2022 release titled Two Predators Sentenced to Federal Prison for Sexually Exploiting Four Children They met on Social Media Platforms reads in part:

“INDIANAPOLIS – Thomas James Israel, 46, of Ft. Wayne, and Max Schafer, 31, of Brownsburg, were each sentenced to federal prison for their role in exploiting four children between October 2019 and August 2020. One of the victims was exploited by both Israel and Schafer during separate incidents. Israel previously pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of a child and distribution of child sexual abuse material. On November 15, 2021, Chief Judge Tanya Walton Pratt sentenced Israel to twenty-five years in federal prison. Late yesterday, Schafer pleaded guilty to receipt of visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct and possession of child sexual abuse material. District Judge James R. Sweeney II sentenced Schafer to over fourteen years (175 months) in federal prison.

“According to court documents, between April 2020 and June 2020, Israel met his first minor victim, who was 14, using online applications such as Omegle and Meetme. Using Snapchat and Kik, Israel persuaded this victim to meet with him in person, then forced the victim into sadomasochistic sexual abuse, including forceful oral sex and assault. Israel recorded the sexual abuse on his mobile phone and later sent the video to the victim.

“Israel met a second minor victim using Snapchat and persuaded the victim to send him explicit videos and photos of herself. When this victim was between 14 and 16 years old, she sent her minor boyfriend sexually explicit images and videos of herself. Without her consent, the boyfriend disseminated the images and videos over the internet. Israel downloaded those images and videos onto his online storage account and viewed them for a sexual purpose.

“Israel met his third minor victim, who was between 14 and 16 years’ old, over Omegle. Knowing that the victim suffered from mental health issues, Israel induced her to produce child sex abuse material, and to sell the images and videos to others online. Israel took a percentage of the fees and paid the victim by sending her gift cards from Victoria’s Secret.

“According to court documents, Schafer also met Israel’s first minor victim using Omegle. Knowing that the minor victim was only fourteen years old, Schafer met and engaged in sexually explicit conduct with the victim. Schafer also persuaded the victim to send him the video that Israel produced, depicting Israel’s violent sexual abuse of the child.

“Schafer also met his second minor victim, who was 16, using Omegle and Snapchat. Schafer persuaded this girl to send him sexually explicit images and videos of herself for his sexual purpose.

“Zachary A. Myers, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana and Herbert J. Stapleton, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Indianapolis Field Office made the announcement.

“The FBI Violent Crime Task Force investigated the case. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department also provided valuable assistance. As part of Israel’s sentence, Judge Pratt ordered that he be supervised by the U.S. Probation Office for life following his release from prison and pay $16,000 in restitution to the victims. As part of Schafer’s sentence, Judge Sweeney ordered that he be supervised by the U.S. Probation Office for 40 years following his release from prison and pay $6,000 in restitution to the victims. Both Israel and Schafer must also register as sex offenders wherever they live, work, or go to school, as required by law.”

Here again, we have yet another example of the social media apps Snapchat and Kik facilitating a connection between predators and their victims for the purpose of exploitation and abuse. As we saw with Kegan Kline, who quite openly and brazenly attempted to victimize children using the online profile Emily Anne 45, often the profile ruse is dropped while the predator looks for a reaction to suggestions of sexual activity between the minor and a much older adult. In one interaction, Kline solicits images and information on behalf of his middle-aged father, which eventually leads to a Skype call taking place. How is it that these messaging apps, for all their sophistication, allow these clearly illegal conversations to slip by without any red flags going up?

The cases of Israel and Schafer provide a further glimpse into the despicable world these predators inhabit and may even indicate a level of coordination between them. Israel is using the social media apps Snapchat and Kik to solicit sexual abuse material and arrange meetings to inflict violent abuse and produce CSAM. He appears to possess an extensive knowledge of ways to choose the most vulnerable and inflict his sadistic abuse on them for pleasure and profit. For his part, Schafer is abusing at least one of the same victims as Israel, and he’s aware of the video Israel produced with that victim.

It is difficult to discern with certainty from the press release, but is it the case that these predators are communicating and coordinating with one another on some level? Are they “sharing” victims? Israel targets a teen who has already been victimized by her boyfriend. Schafer targets one of Israel’s victims. It certainly appears that, at least at some level, these predators are loosely associated. It is more than just the case that they are swimming in the same waters, but that they are exchanging victims and probably even exchanging information on how to exploit the vulnerabilities of these victims. Israel produced a video that was in demand. He also coerced one of his victims to make videos to sell for his monetary benefit. Obviously, there is a market for these videos. We know these predators exchange videos, but are they also exchanging information with designs on inflicting abuse? Could Kegan Kline, as seemingly “a member in good standing” in one of these pedophile circles, have passed on information to a member with extremely violent intentions, who turned around and used that knowledge to carry out his twisted fantasies on two innocent children of Delphi. It appears increasingly likely.