Absecon, NJ man the latest New Jersey resident to be charged with distributing child porn

There continues to be a strong push by law enforcement up and down the Jersey Shore and across the state of New Jersey to halt the distribution of child porn, online crimes, and crimes against children.

An Absecon man is the latest in a recent string of residents across the Jersey Shore and State to be arrested and charged with the distribution of child abuse images and videos on a social messaging application.

The child porn charges against the Atlantic County resident have been announced courtesy of the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office on Tuesday afternoon.

Stephen T. Costello, 41, of Absecon was arrested without incident, according to the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office, and then detained inside of the Atlantic County Justice Facility.

The crimes of Costello came to light when Prosecutor William Reynolds said that, "the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received a referral of inappropriate content distributed on the social media file sharing application KIK."

The tip led to an investigation which led to law enforcement identifying Costello as the man committing this particular set of crimes.

Prosecutor Reynolds said that Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office Detectives learned that Costello distributed more than 1,000 child porn videos and images.

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Costello has been charged with a 1st degree offense in reference to the distribution of child abuse images via a social messaging service and with 2nd degree possession of child abuse images.

Prosecutor Reynolds said that "the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Internet Crimes Against Children Unit was assisted by the United States Department of Homeland Security Investigations, and the Absecon Police Department."