HENDERSON, Ky (WEHT) – An Evansville man was arrested and charged with child exploitation on Tuesday after authorities say he traded sexually explicit images and videos with minors using the chat service Discord.
According to a warrant, police began investigating two cyber tips received by the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children in January. Authorities say both cyber tips were associated with the same Discord username, and contained files that law enforcement identified as child pornography.
A search warrant and non-disclosure order were sent to Discord, which returned user information, and identified 11 sexually explicit images and videos of young boys. A warrant says at least one juvenile depicted in one of these files appeared to be between the ages of 8- and 10-years-old.
Police say the account was linked to Benjamin Seger, 24, of Evansville, whom police contacted on March 30. While talking with police, officers say Seger admitted to officers that the account belonged to him, and said he posed as a 16-year-old boy to talk to other juveniles and talk them into undressing and performing sexual acts on camera. Seger also told authorities he would screen record the video calls and traded the resulting videos and images with others for other content. Authorities say they found an additional 68 images on Seger’s phone depicting child sexual abuse material.
He was booked into the Vanderburgh County Confinement Center, where he was charged with the following:
- Possession of child pornography where the child is under 12-years-of-age (2 counts)
- Possession of child pornography where the child is under 18-years-of-age (2 counts)
- Vicarious sexual gratification
- Child solicitation
He is being held on a $100,000 cash bond. Seger will appear in court on September 7.
