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The MSU junior from Burlington County had contacted underage children online using a bogus identity, then engaged them in sexually explicit chats – and even had some send him videos of them pleasuring themselves, they said.
Keyon Luff, 21, of Edgewater Park, was arrested by state Division of Criminal Justice detectives assisted by Montclair State police during a raid of his on-campus dorm room last week, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin announced on Monday, May 8.
Armed with a court-approved warrant, the Cybercrime Bureau/Internet Crimes Against Children investigators hit the residence with university police just before 7 a.m. May 3, the attorney general said.
They were seizing multiple digital devices when they discovered that Luff was “not only in possession” of child pornography, Platkin said.
He also “created fictitious social media accounts to contact underage children and engage in sexually explicit conversations,” he said.
“In some of those conversations, Luff directed children to perform sexual acts, record them, and send them to him via social media platforms,” the attorney general added.
State investigators were tipped off by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to a cloud-based file hosting service where several child porn files had been uploaded, Platkin said.
They then traced the IP address to the university and, ultimately, to the specific student, he said.
Luff remained held in the Essex County Jail on Monday, charged with first-degree child endangerment, along with lesser counts of sexual assault and false impersonation, among other offenses, records show.
The investigation was led by the state Division of Criminal Justice (DCJ) Cybercrime Bureau/Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, Platkin said.
“I commend the work of the dedicated men and women of the Division of Criminal Justice for their ongoing work on this case and the countless other cases against individuals who use the internet as a means to gain access into the lives of children,” Platkin said.
NOTE: The private, non-profit National Center for Missing and Exploited Children helps authorities find missing children while also reducing and preventing child victimization. It’s also an international clearing house for information about missing and exploited children from law enforcement agencies and the public. Cybertips about online child exploitation that are reported to the NCMEC are immediately forward to law enforcement.
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