COVINGTON, Ga. — A Newton County resident facing charges of uploading child pornography had been a student government leader at Georgia State University's Newton campus and a candidate for Student Government Association president for its Atlanta campus before his early December arrest.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation charged Carlos Porter, 21, with Sexual Exploitation of Children (Possession of Child Sexual Abuse Material) in violation of state law Dec. 8, a news release stated.
He was the Student Government Association executive vice president of GSU's Newton campus and was a candidate for SGA president for the Atlanta campus, according to a report in the university's student newspaper The Signal.
Porter, who was a business major, resigned from his position and is no longer a Georgia State student, the newspaper reported.
Before returning to GSU in the fall semester, Porter and other SGA officers attended a human trafficking and Title IX workshop, it reported.
He joined the SGA in 2018 as a senator for Academic Affairs before becoming the speaker of the Newton campus in spring 2019, The Signal reported.
The suspect, whose address is listed as Conyers, was being held in the Newton County Jail without bond on one count of the felony charge in connection with allegedly uploading suspected child pornography, according to information from the GBI and Newton County Sheriff’s Office.
The GBI’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes (CEACC) Unit began an investigation into Porter’s online activity after receiving a cybertip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding the upload of suspected child pornography by Porter using a "popular social media application," the release stated.
It stated a search of Porter’s home and electronic devices produced evidence that led to his Dec. 8 arrest. Porter was taken into custody and booked into the Newton County Jail.
“This investigation is part of the ongoing effort by the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, housed within the GBI’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit, to identify those involved in the child pornography trade,” the release stated.
“The ICAC Program, created by the U.S. Department of Justice, was developed in response to the increasing number of children and teenagers using the Internet, the proliferation of child pornography, and the heightened online activity by predators searching for unsupervised contact with underage victims.”
