Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Alexander William Callison, 28, was arrested yesterday on child pornography charges.

On December 10, authorities received a CyberTip regarding two videos featuring child sexual abuse material (CSAM) that had been uploaded to a Kik account and subsequently shared with another user. Initially, the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office handled the tip, but it traced back to an IP address linked to a phone number registered to a Gainesville resident.

Following this discovery, the case was passed on to the Gainesville Police Department in April. A detective issued a search warrant to Kik for the account’s content, receiving a response on May 5. The account contained 651 images and videos, with 591 depicting the same individual masturbating—described as a lean, muscular white male with a chest cross tattoo and another on his forearm.

The phone account owner did not match this description. However, the detective traced another phone number on the account to Callison, who had an address in Duncan, OK. Notably, Callison’s Facebook profile revealed a June 8, 2024 update indicating his move to Gainesville, and he appeared to correspond with the individual seen in the videos.

On February 28, 2025, a second CyberTip was received from Kik, with one video and one image of CSAM. A subpoena to Verizon reportedly showed that the IP address used to upload the images was associated with the same phone number that had been linked to Callison.

The contents of the account reportedly included chats with other Kik users who identified themselves as minors, and Callison allegedly sent videos of himself masturbating after the other users said they were minors. The chats also reportedly included sixteen instances in which Callison asked users who identified themselves as minors for explicit videos or images.

On June 4, a search warrant was executed at the address associated with the phone account, and officers spoke with Callison. Post Miranda, Callison reportedly confirmed his phone number and said he’d had the number for a “few years.” He initially denied owning the Kik account, but when he was shown the videos of the man masturbating, he reportedly said he was the man and that he used Kik to connect with other people because he felt lonely and wanted to feel wanted. He reportedly said his behaviors had gotten worse and that he had gotten the CSAM material from other Kik users. He reportedly said he knew it was wrong and that he felt guilty about it; he said he’d been “waiting for his behavior to catch up with him” and wasn’t surprised to see the police.

Callison has been charged with two counts of distribution of child pornography, two counts of possession of child pornography, and 14 counts of transmission of material harmful to minors. The arrest report also shows 16 counts of soliciting CSAM, but the jail site shows three counts of soliciting CSAM, and the court records site does not show these charges.

Callison has no local criminal history; Judge Jonathan Ramsey set bail at $430,000.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.