A man traveled from Minnesota to Virginia this past weekend to engage in illicit sexual acts with a teenager, Fairfax County police say.
Officers were called to a house in the 2000 block of Blue Ridge Court near Herndon at 3:05 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 25 after a resident reported finding his 15-year-old child with an adult man, according to the Fairfax County Police Department.
Investigating detectives with the FCPD’s Child Exploitation Unit determined that the man had come into contact with the teen through social media.
“Trent Fair, 30, of Minnesota, met the victim through the TikTok app,” the FCPD said in a press release published today (Tuesday). “He then traveled to Virginia to engage in illicit acts with the victim.”
Fair was arrested and charged with four counts of soliciting a minor, five counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and producing child sexual abuse material. He’s currently in custody at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center without bond, police said.
“Parents are urged to closely monitor their children’s online activities and use available security settings to prevent the use of inappropriate sites or platforms,” the FCPD said. “Children should be encouraged to report any person engaging in inappropriate conversations or trying to coerce them into providing sexually explicit images of themselves.”
The department advises parents to be aware of what social media platforms and apps their kids are using and to “have an open dialog about the dangers they may pose.”
TikTok briefly went offline earlier this month after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld legislation passed by Congress and signed last April by then-president Joe Biden banning the Chinese-owned platform unless it’s sold to an owner in the U.S. or an allied country.
However, the service returned just hours later on Jan. 19 after incoming President Donald Trump promised not to enforce the ban. After assuming office on Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive order that gave TikTok’s parent company ByteDance 75 more days to find a buyer, though companies could still be fined for helping users access the app.
TikTok remains unavailable for download from Apple, Google and other app stores. Meanwhile, NPR reported on Saturday that the Trump administration is helping negotiate a deal that would let ByteDance retain a minority ownership stake in TikTok, which would be sold to the software company Oracle and other investors.
