Charleston County Man Arrested on Child Sexual Abuse Material* and Related Charges

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Christian Robert Adams, 18, of Mount Pleasant, S.C., on two charges connected to the sexual exploitation of a minor.  Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Charleston County Sheriff's Office made the arrest.  Investigators with the Attorney General's Office Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Berkeley County Sheriff's Office, Charleston Police Department, and Mount Pleasant Police Department, all also members of the state's ICAC Task Force, assisted with this investigation.

Investigators received a CyberTipline report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) which led them to Adams.  Investigators state Adams distributed child sexual abuse material and sent sexually explicit material to a minor. 

Adams was arrested on November 18, 2021.  He is charged with one count of sexual exploitation of a minor, second degree (§16-15-405), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment; and one count of disseminating obscene material to a person under age eighteen (§16-15-345), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment.

This case will be prosecuted by the Attorney General's Office.

Attorney General Wilson stressed all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until they are proven guilty in a court of law.

* Child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, is a more accurate reflection of the material involved in these heinous and abusive crimes. "Pornography" can imply the child was a consenting participant.  Globally, the term child pornography is being replaced by CSAM for this reason.