A 19-year-old Maryland man is facing dozens of felony charges after investigators say he used Snapchat to communicate with a Palm Beach County child and persuaded that child to create and send child sexual abuse material. Chase Michael Hipszer, of Owings, Maryland, was identified through a forensic review of messages, photos and videos exchanged on the platform, according to an arrest affidavit.
The investigation began in April 2026 after family members discovered explicit content on the child's cellphone, as reported by WPBF 25. Detectives say Hipszer used the online name Bob McGregor and communicated with the child on at least two occasions, once on March 23, 2026, and again on April 24, 2026. During those exchanges, he allegedly requested sexually explicit images and videos from the child and sent explicit material of himself in return.
Digital Trail Led Investigators to Maryland
Search warrants and digital evidence tied the Snapchat account back to Hipszer, per the arrest affidavit cited by the station's report. Investigators recovered numerous files and messages they say document an ongoing online sexual relationship and an exchange of child sexual abuse material. The child victim reportedly identified Hipszer from photographs, according to detectives, and investigators subsequently sought an arrest warrant even though Hipszer lives outside Florida.
Hipszer now faces 30 counts of possession, promotion, presentation or depiction of child pornography, 10 counts of direct promotion of a sexual performance by a child, one count of using a two-way communication device to facilitate a felony, and one count of displaying or selling obscene material harmful to minors, per the same account. The case remains under investigation.
What Florida Law Allows Prosecutors to Stack
Florida treats each individual image or video file depicting child sexual abuse material as a separate punishable offense, which is how detectives were able to build 30 distinct counts against Hipszer, according to Joseph Montrone, Jr. Law. Under Florida Statute 827.071, direct promotion of a sexual performance by a child is a second-degree felony carrying up to 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine per count, according to the Florida Senate, which defines a sexual performance as any visual depiction of sexual conduct by a minor regardless of how widely it was shared. Separately, using a two-way communication device such as a phone or messaging app to facilitate a felony is its own third-degree felony under Florida Statute 934.215, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine on top of any underlying charges, according to Meltzer & Bell, P.A. Any conviction under Florida's sexual exploitation statute also carries mandatory lifetime registration on the state's public sex offender registry, according to the Law Office of Armando J. Hernandez, P.A.
Part of a Wider Pattern in Palm Beach County
This case follows other recent Palm Beach County incidents involving Snapchat and minors. In August 2026, Hoodline reported that a 23-year-old West Palm Beach man was charged in Jupiter with lewd battery and molestation after allegedly using Snapchat to coerce a 14-year-old girl into sending explicit photos, with Jupiter police conducting a forensic review of Snapchat messages and phone logs to verify the victim's account. Just this month, Delray Beach police arrested a 52-year-old man who allegedly attempted to meet a minor he had contacted online, reflecting sustained regional law enforcement focus on digital enticement.
The volume of reports tied to the platform has drawn national scrutiny. Snap Inc. submitted approximately 752,000 CyberTip reports of suspected online child sexual exploitation to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in 2025, down from 1.174 million in 2024 following platform reporting refinements, according to figures the company provided. Nationally, CyberTipline reports of online enticement surged from 292,951 in the first half of 2024 to 518,720 during the same period in 2025, per MissingKids.org. A congressional oversight report released this month found that eight major tech platforms, including Snapchat, accounted for 81% of the more than 17 million child exploitation reports submitted to NCMEC in 2025, according to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
Snapchat has integrated NCMEC's Take It Down technology, which allows minors to generate device-side digital fingerprints of explicit imagery to detect and remove copies across participating platforms without human review, according to Snap Inc. The Palm Beach County case against Hipszer remains under investigation as authorities continue reviewing the digital evidence gathered from the Snapchat account.
