Amsterdam Man Sentenced on Child Pornography Charges

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Kevin Safford, age 33, of Amsterdam, New York, was sentenced today to 24 months in prison, to be followed by 20 years of supervised release, for possessing child pornography and accessing a child pornography web site available only through an anonymous Internet network.

The announcement was made by United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith and James N. Hendricks, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

As part of his plea, Safford admitted that in 2015, he accessed Playpen, an online forum through which registered users advertised, viewed, and distributed child pornography.  Images and videos shared through the site were highly categorized according to victim age and gender, and type of sexual activity depicted. 

Before the FBI seized the Playpen web site and shut it down, it was available only through an anonymous Internet network, which allowed users to access websites including Playpen without revealing their actual internet protocol address, geographic location, or other identifying information.  Safford admitted that he logged into Playpen in order to access its child pornography content.  He also admitted to possessing child pornography on an external hard drive.

This case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Barnett.

This case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/.