A 37-year-old man was arrested in San Jose on Tuesday after he allegedly sent sexually explicit content to minors and tried to arrange meetings with them online, according to the Mountain View Police Department.
Mountain View police began investigating a tip regarding the man, who is originally from Colorado, and found that he was allegedly sending sexual content to children through a texting app, according to a statement Wednesday, April 20. Police allege he was attempting to meet with victims to engage in inappropriate behavior.
The man was allegedly attempting to meet with a minor at the time of his arrest, according to police. He was arrested and booked into Santa Clara County jail on April 19 on suspicion of distributing lewd material to a minor and arranging for and showing up to a meeting with a minor to engage in a lewd act.
Police say the man has an extensive criminal history in Colorado that includes child abuse, and that there may be additional victims either in California or his home state. Anyone who may know a victim is asked to contact Det. Jacob Cesena at Jacob.cesena@mountainview.gov.
Though police did not disclose which app was used by the suspect, the department released a guide urging parents to exercise caution in letting their children use twelve apps that could be used by predators, including TikTok and Discord.
The city's Cyber Crime unit carried out the investigation, in partnership with the Silicon Valley Internet Crimes Against Children Unit led by San Jose police.
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