On Sep. 15, the Madison County Sheriff's Office arrested and charged Rexburg local Dakoda Beattie for possessing and generating child-exploitative material.

According to court documents, 21-year-old Beattie has been charged with 12 felony counts of possession of sexually explicit material and three counts of visual representation of the sexual abuse of children.

On Wednesday, Sep. 16, the Madison County Sheriff's Office published a press release regarding Beattie's arrest.

According to the press release, Madison County Detectives received a CyberTip from the Idaho Crimes Against Children Task Force. Detectives traced Beattie using his IP address, arresting him just over two weeks later.

During his arrest, detectives removed a cell phone that was in Beattie's front shirt pocket. When questioned, Beattie said the phone was his 6-year-old daughter's.

On the phone, officers found explicit child material dating back to Feb. 2025.

According to the probable cause affidavit written by Detective Christian Teagues, Beattie claimed he had come across links on Instagram that automatically downloaded to his device. When pressed further, Beattie said his daughter would download pictures and videos of adults and minors.

Later on in the interrogation, Beattie said he downloaded these links to turn over to the police, claiming, "he wanted these links to get taken down, and that's why he viewed them."

At the time of Beattie's booking into the Madison County Jail, he was charged with 11 felonies. In the affidavit of probable cause written on Sep. 15, Detective Teagues wrote, "Due to the overwhelming amount of material located [on Beattie's device], I am unable to get a complete count [of videos and images] at this time."

Beattie's criminal complaint has been amended to include another count of possession of sexually explicit material.

According to court documents, Beattie possessed three AI-generated images of a minor in the nude. The images were generated from a 2024 high school graduation announcement. Because of these images, Beattie has been charged with three counts of visual representation of the sexual abuse of children.

Beattie's next court date is Sep. 30.

The arrest of Beattie comes weeks after the Seventh Circuit Court ruled that the First Amendment protects an individual's rights to AI-generated child exploitative material, so long as the material does not represent an actual child.

The decision was made on Aug. 25 in the case of the United States of America v. Steven Anderegg, who was charged with "producing, distributing, and possessing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and transferring such material to a minor under the age of sixteen."

However, Idaho criminalizes the creation or possession of AI-generated child exploitative material, regardless of whether the material intends to depict an actual child or not, under Idaho Code 18-1507c, which was passed in 2024.