Rock Hill SC man charged with sexually exploiting children after sharing videos online
A Rock Hill man was charged by York County deputies Wednesday with sharing videos of children engaged in sexual acts after a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, records show.
Joseph Vincent Ziranski Jr., 33, was served five arrest warrants for second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, according to jail records and York County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Cpl. Johnathan Gilbert.
Ziranski is accused of using the social media app Discord to distribute or share five videos of children as young as age 3, according to warrants obtained by The Herald. A Sheriff’s Office incident report states a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in March alerted deputies to a possible upload of illegal material.
The content was shared from an internet address in Rock Hill, according to warrants. Ziranski’s devices were seized.
Second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor is defined under South Carolina law as someone who “distributes, transports, exhibits, receives, sells, purchases, exchanges or solicits material that contains a visual representation of a minor engaged in sexual activity or appearing in a state of sexually explicit nudity when a reasonable person would infer the purpose is sexual stimulation.”
The charges are felonies that carries a potential punishment of two to 10 years in prison for each offense, South Carolina law states.
The case is expected to be prosecuted by the S.C. Attorney General’s Office as part of the Internet Crimes Against Children task force project made up of federal, state and local police and prosecutors.
Ziranski was released from the York County Detention Center on bail following an initial court appearance after posting a $35,000 bond, according to sheriff’s deputies and court records.
