Colorado Registered Sex Offender to Spend 10 Years in Prison for Exchanging and Livestreaming CSAM Online

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Key Takeaways

• Sentenced: A U.S. individual was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for involvement with a CSAM forum.
• Offense details: He participated in an invite-only, end-to-end-encrypted group chat dedicated to exchanging and livestreaming CSAM.
• Prior conviction: The man was previously convicted in Colorado in March 2000 for sexually assaulting a child.

A Colorado man has been sentenced to a decade in federal prison for his involvement in a sophisticated online network dedicated to child sexual exploitation. He pleaded guilty in August 2025 to one count of possession of child sexual abuse material. 

The sentencing marks a significant outcome in an FBI child exploitation investigation aimed at dismantling clandestine online groups that victimize minors.

Christiansen Online Child Abuse Case

According to court documents, Steven Glenn Christiansen, a 69-year-old registered sex offender from Fort Collins, Colorado, was an active member of an “online forum that worked to sexually exploit dozens of minor victims” where members shared, requested, and livestreamed CSAM.

The individual used an unnamed mobile messaging application with end-to-end encryption to access an invite-only group chat where members exchanged CSAM media, often involving minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct at the direction of the group's users.

“The members used these groups to share livestreams and save files on third-party platforms,” the DoJ press release says.

An executed search warrant at Christiansen’s residence in Fort Collins led to the seizure of multiple digital devices. 

During the investigation, Christiansen admitted to possessing thousands of images and videos of CSAM, making this his second major offense of this nature, so the prison term will be followed by lifetime supervised release.

Project Safe Childhood and Federal Prosecution

This prosecution was conducted by the Justice Department’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado. It is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide Department of Justice initiative launched in 2006 to combat the epidemic of child sexual abuse. 

This case underscores the ongoing efforts under Project Safe Childhood to prosecute offenders who use encryption and secure messaging platforms to conceal their illicit activities, as reflected in Christiansen's child sexual exploitation sentencing.

In September, two repeat CSAM offenders received at least 10 years of prison time – Antonio Rudy Gonzalez from Virginia was found guilty of new CSAM charges while on supervised release, and Thomas Edward Gailus from Oklahoma used anonymizing networks to access and download CSAM.

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