INDIANAPOLIS — Police arrested an Indianapolis man who claimed he was making child pornography-related transactions online so he could report users.
According to court documents filed in Marion County, 29-year-old Christopher Simpson was charged with:
- Six counts of child exploitation, each a Level 4 felony
- Four additional counts of child exploitation, each a Level 5 felony
The court documents indicate that at the time of his arrest, Simpson was on probation for methamphetamine possession, a Level 6 felony out of Boone County.
In September 2024, officials with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department began to investigate alleged transactions of child pornography on Kik after a cyber tip was sent to the department.
The court documents allege that 10 files of “purported child pornography” were uploaded to the site by a subscriber. The files reportedly included videos of individuals under the age of 18, and some under the age of 12, conducting sexual acts.
During its investigation, IMPD reportedly linked the Kik account, and its associated email, to Simpson. As police were combing through Kik records, the court documents allege that the files were located and chat messages surrounding “trading ‘CP'” were also located.
Other messages in the Kik account reportedly confirmed that Simpson lived in Indianapolis. IMPD provided details surrounding conversations that Simpson had with other users centered on the kinds of videos he was looking for.
“What’s the youngest u have…” one of the messages said.
On April 22, detectives conducted surveillance at a home on the east side of Indianapolis linked to Simpson. After officials reportedly saw him enter the home, Simpson was taken into custody and detectives searched the home. Multiple electronic devices were seized during the searched.
In an interview with law enforcement, Simpson reportedly told police that he had recently moved back to the east side home and was living with a family member. Initially, Simpson denied knowing about Kik, but later reportedly admitted to operating an account.
The documents allege that Simpson admitted to chatting about child pornography and participating in child pornography-related transactions while on the platform.
“(Simpson) initially claimed he had done this to try to report these people, but also admitted that he never did report anyone,” the documents said. “(Simpson) also admitted that he had searched for terms indicative of underage pornography on Google but initially claimed he had only done this to report the links to have them taken down.”
According to court documents, Simpson’s pretrial hearing is scheduled for June 17 and his jury trial is scheduled for June 23.
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