The Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force Program is an initiative of the United States Department of Justice through the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). Across the nation, local ICAC task forces are comprised of state, county, and municipal law enforcement agencies. These task forces were developed in response to an increase in computer sex crimes and online child sexual exploitation, and they are intended to track down, identify, and prosecute internet predators and to eradicate child pornography.
In Oklahoma, the ICAC task forces are focused heavily on finding and eliminating child pornography online. In a typical scenario, an undercover officer may peruse file sharing sites known for distributing child pornography. Once the task force member finds illicit files uploaded by an Oklahoma user, law enforcement will track the IP address and use other forensic measures to identify the suspect.
One such investigation, launched this summer in Grady County, resulted in the arrest this week of a 25-year-old Cement man on multiple child pornography complaints. Agents with the Grady County ICAC task force allegedly accessed multiple images of child pornography on the computer of Ronald Chase Williams. After serving a warrant at Williams' home, law enforcement officers reportedly found in excess of 100 pornographic images of minors on the man's computer devices.
Williams was arrested and booked into the Grady County Jail on complaints of possession of child pornography, aggravated possession of child pornography, distribution of child pornography, and violation of the Oklahoma Computer Crimes Act.
Oklahoma law gives a graphic and detailed definition of "child pornography" in 21 O.S. � 1024.1:
. . . [A]ny visual depiction or individual image stored or contained in any format on any medium including, but not limited to, film, motion picture, videotape, photograph, negative, undeveloped film, slide, photographic product, reproduction of a photographic product, play or performance wherein a minor under the age of eighteen (18) years is engaged in any act with a person, other than his or her spouse, of sexual intercourse which is normal or perverted, in any act of anal sodomy, in any act of sexual activity with an animal, in any act of sadomasochistic abuse including, but not limited to, flagellation or torture, or the condition of being fettered, bound or otherwise physically restrained in the context of sexual conduct, in any act of fellatio or cunnilingus, in any act of excretion in the context of sexual conduct, in any lewd exhibition of the uncovered genitals in the context of masturbation or other sexual conduct, or where the lewd exhibition of the uncovered genitals, buttocks or, if such minor is a female, the breast, has the purpose of sexual stimulation of the viewer, or wherein a person under the age of eighteen (18) years observes such acts or exhibitions.
In short, any sexually explicit images of minors under the age of 18 are considered to be child pornography.
There are a number of criminal statutes which apply to child pornography under Oklahoma law:
The sexual exploitation of children is a serious offense, and state and federal law enforcement agencies are quick to prosecute. Learn more.
