IDAHO FALLS — A 38-year-old man was arrested Wednesday after police say he admitted to watching AI child pornography, and claimed he did it so he wouldn’t “go after” real children.
Mathew Dudley is charged with ten counts of felony willfully possessing child sexually exploitative material.
According to police reports, Microsoft BingImages filed a CyberTip with the National Center for Missing and Endangered Children in regard to a file containing child pornography.
The file was reportedly uploaded to BingImages on April 2 to search for similar content. The content reportedly showed an infant being sexually assaulted by an adult. Idaho Falls Police officers traced the IP address to Dudley’s home in Idaho Falls.
They served a search warrant at the home on Wednesday, where police detained Dudley and seized a 2-terabyte hard drive from his bedroom, along with 10 other digital devices.
During an interview with police, Dudley reportedly admitted to searching for, downloading, and saving child pornography.
Dudley reportedly stated that he would search for real and AI child pornography so that he “wouldn’t go after real children.” He allegedly continued, saying he viewed child pornography because he “did not want to sexually abuse children.”
During a search of the hard drive, police say they found over 2,000 images of child pornography, showing children between the ages of 1 and 12 years old being raped and sexually abused. Police are still searching the other 10 devices.
Dudley reportedly told police he had been searching for and watching child pornography since 2004, when he was 18 years old.
He was arrested and transported to the Bonneville County Jail on a $100,000 bond. Dudley is expected to appear for a preliminary hearing on Sept. 3. If convicted, he could face up to life in prison.
Though Dudley has been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean he committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.
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