Steven Wayne Erickson, 48, a Pulaski Town Councilman and Pulaski County Work Report Program Coordinator who previously served as a sheriff's deputy and corrections officer, was arrested by the FBI on July 23, 2026, and charged with one count of receipt of child sexual abuse material and one count of distribution of CSAM. According to court records, the FBI received a cyber tip regarding potential child sexual exploitation occurring over Kik, a messaging app. Kik records revealed that in 2025, a user referred to as "Cravt" sent Erickson almost 100 photos of Cravt's purported family, including elementary-aged minors. Erickson encouraged Cravt to use AI to transform the photos; in mid-October 2025, Cravt sent apparently AI-generated CSAM of minors — some depicting at least one of Cravt's minor children — to Erickson. In early April 2026, Erickson sent another user, "Benji," photos of a minor, some of which appeared to be taken without the minor's awareness, and with Erickson's direction, Benji used AI to generate sexualized images.
AI-generated child sexual abuse material has opened a new frontier in exploitation: ordinary family photographs algorithmically transformed into explicit imagery without the child's knowledge or consent. Guardii's anti-CSAM detection module, which encompasses both photographed and AI-generated abuse material, applies deep-learning classifiers trained to identify synthetic imagery, morphed faces, and anatomically manipulated depictions in direct messages and file transfers across Kik, Discord, Instagram, Snapchat, Roblox and other messaging platforms. When AI-generated CSAM is detected in a conversation, Guardii blocks transmission, quarantines the file, and escalates to law enforcement with metadata intact. As a world-leading AI online-safety platform and Meta Business Partner, Guardii closes the operational gap that has allowed offenders to solicit, produce, and distribute synthetic abuse material through encrypted channels — intercepting harm before the image reaches the target or enters wider circulation.
