An Oklahoma man was sentenced Friday to seven years in federal prison after forming an online relationship with a Louisiana teen through a videogame.
David John Ballance, 58, of Tulsa, was convicted on charges of receipt of child pornography, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice. Ballance must pay $3,000 in restitution. He also must register as a sex offender and be supervised for five years upon his release.
Ballance met the victim, then 13 years old, through an online video game and used the game's direct messaging function to initiate contact.
Ballance then moved their conversations to another social media platform's direct messaging app, where he claimed to be 23 years old. At the time of the messaging, Ballance was aware that he was speaking with a child younger than 16.
Between July and October 2021, Ballance began introducing "intimate language" to their conversations and "knowingly sent images containing explicit content" to the minor, according to the release.
The teen then sent explicit images of themselves to Ballance over the internet. Ballance captured these images, which were set to delete after a few seconds, before they disappeared from the messaging platform.
The FBI investigated these incidents, and Ballance was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul L. Pugliese.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.