So which one of the Beatles did you guess? I hope it wasn’t Ringo Starr. No one ever has the same name as Ringo Starr. Yes, I know that’s not Ringo’s real name for the pedants out there.
Anyway, 53-year-olf George Harrison of Evanston, Illinois, has been arrested and faces multiple child porn charges. Between November 2015 and September 2019, it’s alleged that Harrison used the microblogging site Tumblr to share or receive 317 child porn images. Harrison’s alleged activity took place before and after Tumblr’s infamous porn ban that saw a large portion of its users leave the platform. Harrison recently pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
Investigators were initially tipped off to Harrison by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The Task Forces said they had information about Harrison and ‘unlawful images in a chat room.’ I wonder if they mean Tumblr’s messaging system or a different chat platform used by child porn collectors.
When police eventually arrested Harrison, he was said to have had numerous images of child porn on his phone. Not surprisingly. Harrison is a former volunteer youth sports coach for the local Catholic Diocese. Take that for what you will.
In Tumblr’s defense, they are one of the more committed platforms when it comes to reporting child exploitation. However, due to the sexual nature of a lot of content still on Tumblr, I would at least monitor any children in the house that use the platform.
Real Crime with Trench Reynolds 