Son Shocked by Father's Phone, Calls 911 and Reports "Possession of Child Pornography"

Police Investigation Uncovers 1,000 Child Pornography Files
Suspect Faces Up to 15 Years in Prison

A man living in Florida, USA, discovered 1,000 child pornography files on his father's cellphone and reported it to the police. On the 2nd (local time), foreign media such as the New York Post and CNN reported that the Kenneth City Police Department arrested Gene Paulin (63) on January 28 on charges of possessing child pornography. The person who reported this man to the police was Paulin's son, Jared.

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He stated to the police that his father, Paulin, asked for help because his Gmail account was deactivated due to "sexual and explicit child images," and during that process, he discovered child pornography. Jared reported what he personally found on his father's cellphone to the police around September last year. Subsequently, the investigating officer obtained a search warrant for Paulin's Google account and reviewed photos uploaded to the Gmail account between March 13, 2023, and September 10, 2024.

The police found 952 child pornography files on Paulin's USB, most of which were related to young girls aged between 5 and 8 years old. According to prison records confirmed by the media, Paulin, originally from Missouri, is currently charged with 20 counts of possessing child pornography, all classified as second-degree felonies. He was released on bail on the 30th of last month. If Paulin is found guilty, he could face up to 15 years in prison.

Meanwhile, unlike the United States, which imposes strict penalties for illegal pornography, domestic laws in Korea tend to be lenient. Under current law, if someone watches illegal pornography, according to Article 14 of the Sexual Violence Punishment Act, anyone who possesses, purchases, stores, or watches images taken against the subject's will using cameras or other mechanical devices can be sentenced to up to three years in prison or fined up to 30 million won. The same applies to watching deepfake sexual exploitation materials or pornography involving children and adolescents. However, actual punishments are mostly limited to fines.

A bigger problem is that even if illegal pornography is discovered and the victim is aware of the harm, the videos cannot be deleted at will. Measures regarding internet information are subject to the principle of territoriality (limiting the scope of law application to the country's own territory), so domestic institutions, including the Korea Communications Standards Commission, do not have the authority to request deletion of videos distributed on sites with servers overseas. Instead, in Korea, access to such videos is blocked by "access blocking." However, changing the IP address can allow viewing, and if the videos are not completely deleted, they can lead to secondary harm.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.