A rise in technology may responsible for an increase of arrests in child pornography cases seen recently at Iowa State.

“With the rise of the Internet in recent years, the accessibility to pornographic material has become much easier,” said ISU Police Capt. Gene Deisinger. “Chat rooms and e-mail make exchanging and searching for material faster, and more convenient; creating more demand and making the material harder to catch.”

The arrest Monday of Nick Lahr, freshman in pre-computer science, is another addition to a growing list of students and staff who have been arrested on child pornography-related charges.

The first of the recent string began May 2 with the arrest of former ISU student Jason Lighthall. Lighthall was originally charged with 60 class D felony counts of promoting materials depicting sexual acts with minors and 100 serious misdemeanor counts of possessing child pornography.

Buckley Necker, senior in agricultural education, was arrested Oct. 23, 2002, and charged with five Class D felony counts for possessing child pornographic-related material and making it available on the ISU network. Necker received deferred judgment March 10 after he pleaded guilty to one count of sexual exploitation of a minor.

Jeremy Leo, freshman in meteorology, was also arrested Oct. 23, 2002, and charged with 17 aggravated misdemeanor counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. Another student, Gregory Hudgens, freshman in pre-computer science, was arrested Dec. 6, 2002, and charged with eight aggravated misdemeanor charges after police found digital images on his computer of children performing sexual acts.

Former men’s basketball assistant coach Randy Brown pleaded not guilty in federal court March 24 to one count of receipt and one count of possession of images containing minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct. All charges were related to the possession of digital images of minors engaging in sexual activities.

Most local authorities agree the increase in awareness of the existence of pornography has occurred outside Ames as well.

“Comparing Ames to other communities proves that we are not the only community that has been confronted with an increase in pornography-related crime,” said Mark Mills, Ames Police Department’s community resource officer.

Deisinger agreed. “We are at an advantage in Ames in that we have excellent expertise to analyze any questionable material,” he said.

Deisinger said obscenity charges can range from an aggravated misdemeanor charge to a class D felony, depending mostly upon whether or not the individual was in possession of the material, or if they were also distributing it. The depiction of children may also affect charges.

— Jill Sederstrom contributed to this story.