A Simi Valley man, duly registered as a sex offender, has been handed a prison sentence of over three years for his involvement in distributing child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Ronald Kenneth Rosen, 66, previously entered a guilty plea on March 20, for controlling or possessing CSAM while registered as a sex offender and for distributing CSAM, according to a release from the Ventura County District Attorney's office.
Labeled a repeat offender, Rosen was previously convicted in 1997 for possessing CSAM, earning him a lifetime on the sex offender register. Last July, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was tipped off by a CyberTipline report from a web service provider, which flagged emails potentially containing recognized CSAM. The ensuing investigation by law enforcement painted a distressing portrait of Rosen's electronic misdeeds, which stretch back to 2006, trading CSAM with individuals in a tight-knit group over email.
On April 13, 2022, Rosen's home was the target of a search warrant, where investigators uncovered digital imagery of young children in sexual contexts—some victims distressingly young as toddlers. Rosen, snatched by authorities, has remained in custody since. Senior Deputy District Attorney Howard Wise, charged with prosecuting the case, underscored the dangers of such internet communities. "Rosen found like-minded people on the Internet, and this legitimized for each other behavior that society uniformly abhors," Wise elucidated in a statement, as per the Ventura County District Attorney's office.
The collaborative efforts of the Ventura County District Attorney's Bureau of Investigation, Simi Valley Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Southern California High Tech Task Force have been crucial in bringing Rosen to justice, reflecting the seriousness with which authorities approach the exploitation of the vulnerable. "We must end the sexual exploitation of children in every form," Wise stressed, voicing a call to action embodied in Rosen's conviction.
