MOBILE, Ala. — With Dylan Lovvorn sentenced Friday in federal court, the 37-year-old Talladega man who was living in Mobile when investigators traced online accounts to him will serve 210 months in federal prison for distributing child sexual abuse material, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama said Friday.
The sentence, equal to 17 1/2 years, was imposed by U.S. District Judge Terry Moorer. Lovvorn had pleaded guilty to four counts of distribution of child pornography, the term federal law uses for such material.
The case began with tips to the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office in July 2024 and was investigated jointly by the sheriff’s office and the FBI.
How the investigation began
According to court documents described by federal prosecutors, the sheriff’s office received CyberTips from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in July 2024. The tips concerned multiple accounts on Kik, a messaging app, that were involved in distributing child sexual abuse material.
Investigators determined that the accounts were operated by Lovvorn, who was living in Mobile at the time.
Search warrants served on Kik produced the contents of the accounts. Prosecutors said investigators found chats on four separate occasions in which Lovvorn agreed to exchange illegal material with other users and then sent images and videos depicting the sexual exploitation of children. Each of those four occasions corresponds to one of the counts to which he pleaded guilty.
Federal officials have not released any information about the children depicted in the material, and South AL News does not report identifying details about victims of these crimes.
The sentence and conditions
Judge Moorer ordered Lovvorn to serve 210 months in the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons. The court also imposed a series of conditions that will follow him during and after his prison term:
- Participation in mental health, substance abuse and sex offender treatment programs while in custody
- A 15-year term of supervised release after he leaves prison
- Registration as a sex offender
- A ban on contact with minors
- Restrictions on internet use
- Restitution to victims identified in the material he distributed
In ordering restitution, the judge emphasized the lasting impact of child abuse and exploitation, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
What officials said
U.S. Attorney Sean P. Costello said offenders who target children will be pursued whether the crimes happen online or in person.
“Criminals who exploit children—whether online or in person—will be investigated, identified, and brought to justice,” Costello said. “Working with our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, our prosecutors will bring the full force of the law to bear on any offender who would take advantage of children.”
Christopher R. Flowers, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Mobile field office, said sharing such material is itself a form of continuing harm.
“Those who distribute child sexual abuse material are not simply sharing images. They are perpetuating the abuse and exploitation of innocent children,” Flowers said. “This sentence reflects the seriousness of these crimes and reinforces a simple truth: individuals like Dylan Lovvorn who prey on children will be pursued and held accountable. The FBI will continue working relentlessly with our partners to identify offenders and bring them to justice.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tandice Blackwood prosecuted the case.
How federal law treats distribution
Distribution of child sexual abuse material is a federal crime in part because it typically involves the internet, interstate communications and digital platforms that cross state lines. For a first offense, federal law sets a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison for each count of distribution and a maximum of 20 years. Judges determine the actual sentence after reviewing a presentence report and the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account factors such as the number of images, the nature of the material, the use of a computer and whether the material was exchanged with others.
There is no parole in the federal prison system. Inmates can earn limited credit for good behavior, but people sentenced in federal court generally serve the large majority of their terms. Supervised release, which begins after prison, is overseen by the U.S. Probation Office. People on supervised release must follow court-ordered conditions, and violations can result in a return to prison.
Restitution in these cases is intended to help compensate people who were depicted in the material. Federal law recognizes that victims are harmed each time images of their abuse are shared, and courts can order defendants to pay restitution to identified victims whose images were found in a case. Congress expanded that framework in 2018 with the Amy, Vicky, and Andy Child Pornography Victim Assistance Act, which set minimum restitution amounts and created a fund to assist victims.
The role of CyberTips
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is a private, nonprofit organization that operates the CyberTipline, the nation’s centralized system for reporting suspected online child sexual exploitation. Electronic service providers based in the United States are required by federal law to report apparent child sexual abuse material they become aware of on their platforms to the CyberTipline. The center reviews those reports and makes them available to law enforcement agencies with jurisdiction, often local agencies such as the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office, which can then seek search warrants and pursue cases.
Many local investigations of this kind are handled in partnership with state Internet Crimes Against Children task forces and federal agencies, and prosecutions can be brought in either state or federal court.
Project Safe Childhood
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide Justice Department initiative launched in May 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, the program brings together federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute people who sexually exploit children and to identify and rescue victims.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama, based in Mobile, handles federal prosecutions across southwest Alabama. This week, the office also announced the 151-month sentence of a Grove Hill man who sent obscene computer-generated images depicting child sexual abuse to minors. Earlier this month, a Mobile florist was sentenced to life in federal prison in a separate child exploitation case.
How to report suspected exploitation
Anyone who suspects a child is being exploited online can report it to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s CyberTipline at report.cybertip.org or 1-800-843-5678. Tips can also be submitted to the FBI at tips.fbi.gov or 1-800-CALL-FBI. If a child is in immediate danger, call 911.
Child safety advocates encourage parents and caregivers to talk regularly with children about the apps they use and the people they communicate with, to know that messaging apps can be used to contact and exploit young people, and to encourage children to tell a trusted adult if anything online makes them uncomfortable. Messages and screenshots should be preserved rather than deleted so that investigators can review them.
