A 23-year-old Ridgeville man is facing two felony charges after investigators say a national CyberTip report led them to search his home and find files containing child sexual abuse material. Daniel Aaron Todd was taken into custody following the search, which authorities carried out at his residence on Monday.
Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force investigators executed the search warrant on October 13, working alongside the Dorchester County Sheriff's Office Investigations Division and Patrol Team One, according to WCIV. The station reports the investigation began after the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children submitted a CyberTip report that set the case in motion. During the search, detectives said they found files containing child sexual abuse material, the station notes.
Todd was charged with second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, per the same account. Each count is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, according to einnews.com, citing South Carolina statutes §16-15-405 and §16-15-410.
What the Charges Describe
South Carolina's statutory framework, as summarized in offense descriptions published by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, outlines that sexual exploitation of a minor can include distributing, transporting, exhibiting, receiving, selling, purchasing, exchanging or soliciting material depicting a minor engaged in sexual activity, when statutory conditions are met. A separate SLED offense description for the third-degree charge states that a person commits that offense if, knowing the character or content of the material, they possess a visual representation of a minor engaging in sexual activity.
The case will be prosecuted by the South Carolina Attorney General's Office, according to einnews.com. Attorney General Alan Wilson's office said all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law, the outlet reported.
Sheriff Credits Investigators
Dorchester County Sheriff Sam Richardson praised the investigators and deputies involved in the case, saying the arrest demonstrates their commitment to holding accountable those who exploit children, per WCIV's reporting. Richardson also commended the deputies who worked to execute the search warrant, the station said.
The investigation was conducted in collaboration with the South Carolina Attorney General's Office, according to the same report. It follows a similar case out of Dorchester County last year: in that instance, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the sheriff's office arrested 24-year-old Jaylen Patrick Thomas of Ladson on Nov. 21 after a CyberTipline report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to live5news.com. Investigators in that case said Thomas allegedly distributed files of child sexual abuse material and faced up to 10 years in prison if convicted, the outlet reported.
A Nationwide Surge in Reports
Cases like these are unfolding against a backdrop of rapidly rising tip volume nationally. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's CyberTipline received 1.4 million reports concerning online enticement in 2025, according to missingkids.org. The organization also reported that child sex trafficking reports to the CyberTipline jumped 323% compared with 2024.
Financial sextortion reports averaged 137 per day in 2025, a 37% increase from the year before, the organization said. More than 400,000 of last year's CyberTipline reports involved exploitation with a generative-artificial-intelligence nexus, and reports submitted by electronic service providers contained 61.8 million images, videos and other files tied to suspected child sexual exploitation incidents, according to the same data.
