Lebanon teen arrested on child porn charges

Maria Flora, The Lebanon Reporter, Ind.
·2 min read
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Nov. 2—A Lebanon teen has been charged with possession of child pornography after local authorities received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Indiana State Police.

Zionsville Police Detective Thomas Beard in September received a cyber tip that someone with the user name Dante McGlothlin uploaded four suspect files to Dropbox, a cloud service that stores files for users, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Beard is part of the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and found McGlothlin lived in Lebanon and had uploaded three videos with pre-pubescent girls involved in sexual activities in March, just two weeks after his 18th birthday, according to court records.

Police are still examining McGlothlin's laptop computer and cell phone but found enough evidence on the cell phone to charge him, Beard reported.

McGlothlin was arrested Oct. 27 and remained in the Boone County Jail at press time Wednesday.

McGlothlin is charged in Boone Circuit Court with four counts of possession of child pornography, one as a level 5 felony and the others as level 6 felonies.

Judge Lori Schein assigned McGlothlin a pauper attorney Monday and set his bond at $25,000 surety or $2,500 cash. His release from jail is subject to the Boone County Pretrial Release Program's supervision and conditions.

He is tentatively scheduled for a March trial.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported a 35% increase in suspected child sexual exploitation via the Internet from 2020 to 2021 and alerted police to 4,260 potential new victims in 2021.

"The expansion of the Internet and advanced digital technology lies parallel to the explosion of the child pornography market," according to a U.S. Department of Justice report that continues, "Child pornography images are readily available through virtually every Internet technology, including social networking websites, file-sharing sites, photo-sharing sites, gaming devices, and even mobile apps. Child pornography offenders can also connect on Internet forums and networks to share their interests, desires, and experiences abusing children, in addition to selling, sharing, and trading images."