A father who called the police after he found out his 11-year-old daughter had been sending images of herself to a man online was told his child could face charges of making indecent images of children.
Police in Columbus, Ohio, say they are investigating a report their officers told the worried parent their daughter could be the one in the dock after he said she had been the victim of an “online predator”.
A video posted on TikTok shows the unidentified man talking to officers who came to his door in answer to his complaint of a man having manipulated his daughter into sending the pictures.
After opening the door, the man says: “She’s in bed now.”
A female officer says: “It still happened, though, right?”
The man says: “Yeah, yeah, yeah, the whole point, I just wanted you guys to come over and talk to her.
“I just want her to realise what this was. I mean, reality is not much I probably can do about it, is there?”
The female officer replies: “I mean, she can probably get charged with child porn.”
The man said: “Who, she can? She’s 11 years old.”
The female officer then continues: “She’s creating it, right?”
The man says: “She’s 11 years old.”
The officer says: “Doesn’t matter. She’s still making porn.”
The man says: “No, she’s not. She’s being manipulated by a grown (expletive) adult on the internet.”
“Is she taking pictures, though?” the officers asks.
The man responds: “You guys have a nice evening.”
He heads into the house and says: “Thank you for coming.” He then turns and and adds: “Are you serious? Have a nice evening.”
It is unclear when the interaction took place, but the social media post, which had around 700,000 views by Monday afternoon, said the officers turned up six hours after the man’s call to police.
Columbus police said the city’s Department of the Inspector General “which investigates complaints of misconduct and/or excessive use of force by sworn personnel, has opened an inquiry into this incident”.
The department said it is investigating the video posted on social media “involving two officers responding to a call for service”.
Police said they regard all sexual misconduct allegations “with the utmost seriousness” and “incidents involving minors are handled with the highest degree of concern”.
They said detectives with the sexual assault unit were immediately notified and have since initiated an investigation.
