A Walt Disney World employee arrested on a child pornography charge Thursday said he posted photos of his coworkers to a porn social networking website as well as their private contact information, according to court records.

Daniel Rivera, who investigators say worked for Walt Disney World Parks and Resorts, faces a federal charge after law enforcement found a file sharing account containing child pornography was accessed on Disney property and at Rivera’s home.

Rivera told investigators this week that he had separately sent pictures of his coworkers, some of whom were dressed as Disney characters, on a website hosting discussions on photos and videos of “sexual interest.” Rivera said he had even shared his coworker’s personal information with site users.

“He has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the charges,” said a Walt Disney World spokesperson in an email.

The investigation began in September, when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children tipped off the Orange County Sheriff’s Office about potential child pornography being shared on the file hosting service Dropbox.

Dropbox provided account information and a log of IP addresses, including the dates and times in which the account was accessed from July through September. According to an affidavit, one of the IP addresses was linked to Walt Disney World Service, which “implies that the user was located within Disney office space or Disney property.”

Investigators found that the Dropbox account contained two files showing children under 10 years of age in sex acts with adult men.

Investigators linked the account with Rivera’s home in Winter Garden. They then went through his social media accounts, one of which had photos of an award Rivera allegedly received for 20 years of employment with Disney World.

A search of Rivera’s email address led investigators to a social networking website centered around discussion about sexual photos and videos uploaded by users.

Rivera’s account revealed he had 155 posts, “including several photos of young girls and women he claims he knows,” court records say. Some of the photos showed people dressed as Disney characters and had captions identifying some of them as his coworkers. The account offered to provide other users with the social media usernames and phone numbers of his unknowingly photographed coworkers.

Many of Rivera’s posts are in discussion forums “that have titles indicative of an interest in young girls and theme parks,” court records say. The website was taken down in March 2022.

On Thursday, agents with the Department of Homeland Security, Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office searched Rivera’s home and found a hard drive containing images of girls in “erotic poses.”

Rivera in an interview with investigators initially said that he viewed and saved “less than 30 videos of child pornography, and that he digressed into looking for child pornography in the last year or two.”

After being confronted with conflicting evidence, Rivera said he had been searching for, and obtaining, child pornography “about once a week for the last 10 years.”

He also told law enforcement he had shared the personal contact information of some of his coworkers.

Before he was arrested, he spoke on the phone with his wife.

“I have a problem I guess,” he said, according to court records. “I tried to fix myself but I never could.”

ccann@orlandosentinel.com