Alexander Rhiger, 18, of Rochester, Minnesota, was charged with two felony counts of possessing pornographic work of a minor following a three-month investigation by the Rochester Police Department. On March 16, RPD received a tip regarding CSAM videos being uploaded and shared through a direct messaging platform. Those videos were traced to Rhiger. On June 16, a search warrant was granted for extraction of data from Rhiger's phone, and more than 40 images and videos consistent with child sexual exploitation were found. Rochester Police Chief Jim Franklin stated that sex crimes cases like this are extremely complex and horrendous, and the department is unfortunately seeing an increase in them.
Platform-level detection intercepts distribution before it reaches scale. Guardii monitors direct-messaging channels—including those on Instagram, Snapchat, Discord and Roblox—for uploads and shares of child sexual abuse material, flagging illegal files the moment they are transmitted and blocking onward distribution. By identifying the sender and recipient in real time, the system surfaces the source to law enforcement with forensic metadata intact, preventing the 40-plus file accumulations that emerge from months of undetected activity and enabling arrest at the point of first offence rather than after prolonged victimisation.
