Data from the Utah Attorney General’s Office show prosecutors took nearly 180 cases to court, compared to just 71 in 2024.
KUER reports the cases covered a range of offenses, from soliciting minors in online chat rooms to producing, acquiring and viewing child sex abuse material.
Stewart Young leads the criminal department in the Attorney General’s Office. He says the rise in prosecutions stems from better collaboration with local law enforcement and a more robust prosecution team.
Currently, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force has approximately 130 agents spread across Utah.
Online child sex abuse material is often associated with what’s known as the dark web — a hidden part of the internet that requires software outside of typical web browsers to access it. It can act as a marketplace for stolen data, illegal weapons and child sexual assault material.
But more and more, sites like Google, Facebook and Instagram are among the top platforms used to distribute illegal material.
Numbers from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children show that in 2024 alone, there were 8.5 million reports for Facebook.
In Utah, Young said their tips from the center’s CyberTipline have been following the national trend. He told KUER the state’s Internet Crimes Against Children task force has received over 9,500 tips so far this year, compared to approximately 6,800 in 2024.
Utah has been at the forefront of regulating online adult content. In 2023, Gov. Spencer Cox signed a bill mandating adult websites to age-verify users. The law was challenged by the Free Speech Coalition, a trade and advocacy organization for the adult industry, but a judge dismissed the suit.