SC legislation aims to make it easier to convict people downloading child porn

COLUMBIA — Finding and convicting people downloading child pornography could become easier in South Carolina.

A bill a signature from becoming law allows the state Attorney General’s Office to subpoena websites and internet providers to locate people suspected of accessing child pornography.

Attorney General Alan Wilson called the bill unanimously approved in both chambers a “game changer” for his office.

“It will make it so much easier to go after child predators online,” the state’s chief prosecutor told reporters Friday.

According to Wilson, his office has made about 3,000 arrests for internet sex crimes since his tenure began in 2011.

The cases can be delayed for weeks, sometimes even months, as state prosecutors wait for court authority to get the information needed to track down suspects, he said.

The bill would enable the task force to get that information in a day or two if it relates to internet sex crimes.

“It’s going to cut the time down tremendously for going after people who are preying on children online,” said Wilson, who’s been advocating for the change for several years.

The new authority applies only to subpoenas issued by the Attorney General’s Office in cases investigated by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Ensuring the bill was limited to that was crucial, said Sen. Matthew Leber, a co-sponsor of the proposal.

“We wanted to address the problem at hand and not create unintended consequences,” the Johns Island Republican told the SC Daily Gazette.

Another co-sponsor is Sen. Jason Elliott, a former prosecutor in Anderson and Greenville counties.

This bill is “a vital step in protecting children,” said the Greenville Republican.

Gov. Henry McMaster is expected to sign the legislation.

When he does, “we’ll be able to get to work and use this to better serve our state,” Wilson said.

SC AG seeks law criminalizing ‘artificial’ child pornography

Also expected to be signed into law are two bills criminalizing the use of technology to create child pornography — whether using actual or computer-generated photos of children. Both received final approval by the Legislature last week after similar bills fell short in 2024.

“We have to catch the laws up,” Wilson told reporters. “When they were writing child exploitation laws, no one ever dreamed that you could create children, or morph images of innocent children into these types of pictures and videos.”

Wilson is expected to be among candidates running for governor in 2026, though he hasn’t officially made a decision. One could be coming in the “not too distant future,” he told reporters Friday.

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, another likely candidate, has repeatedly claimed that Wilson doesn’t do enough to prosecute child predators.

The attorney general responded to the criticisms Saturday, referring to Mace only as a “would-be candidate” for governor.

His response on X included advocating for the bills soon to be law. He also says he quadrupled the size of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

“Enough is enough,” he wrote. “I won’t allow someone to use lies, misinformation, and half truths (at best) to cast a negative light on hardworking men and women of law enforcement.”

The 1st District congresswoman followed up with another criticism, writing on X that “when predators walk free, that’s on him. The buck stops at Alan Wilson. Period.”