Meillo Schneider (Fond du Lac Co. Jail)
FOND DU LAC, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A man facing charges for allegedly possessing computer-generated child pornography was ordered Friday to stand trial.
Meillo Schneider, 20, faces seven counts of possession of virtual child pornography for allegedly accessing computer-generated child pornography.
After testimony at a preliminary hearing, Schneider was bound over to stand trial. No arraignment date was set.
According to the criminal complaint, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children alerted the sheriff’s department about a Taycheedah address where the material was accessed.
“There was over 13,000 files included in the data provided by Amazon.com Inc. Corporation Service Company and Amazon Photos Trust and Safety Team. Det. Tikkanen briefly reviewed the material visually. Det. Tikkanen could see there were thousands of JPG and GIF files of anime/artistic renderings of child sexual abuse material,” the complaint states.
“Some of these images were hard to distinguish if they were AI generated or if they were real, unidentified victims.”
Lt. Alex Volm with the Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office previously said: “It’s child pornography that can be considered life-like or photo realistic. So, it’s not an actual person that’s being depicted in the images, but it’s a computer generated photo realistic image.”
Possession of child pornography has been illegal in Wisconsin for decades. Wisconsin lawmakers passed a bill earlier this year which added AI-generated content to child pornography possession laws.
The case against Schneider marks the first time Fond du Lac County has prosecuted a case like this.
The complaint details the contents of several of the files.
“It would appear this user was researching child sexual dolls. There were images that showed realistic looking children posed sexually,” the complaint states.
When interviewed by police Schneider “went on to explain that everything he watched was for self-gratification and not for sharing with other people,” according to the complaint.
When asked he had ever viewed any pornography that would be considered illegal or dangerous, he replied “By this country’s standards, sadly yes. But I would hope this country also understands that I’m not going to re-distribute it or like sell it. Like I said I just want it for personal gratification,” the complaint states.
The complaint does not contain allegations Schneider generated any of the content.
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