A man who sexually exploited children and distributed, received, and possessed child pornography, was sentenced today to 30 years in federal prison. Steven William Acklin, age 29, formerly from Waterloo, Iowa, received the prison term after a March 23, 2026, guilty plea to sexual exploitation of children and receipt of child pornography.
Information at the sentencing hearing showed that in the fall of 2023, while he was living in Waterloo, Acklin contacted an undercover police officer who was posing as a mother of a 12-year-old child. Acklin asked to see naked photos of the child. Between January 2024 and September 2024, Acklin contacted multiple children online, requesting that they make and send him depictions of themselves engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Acklin successfully obtained child pornography from some of the children. Acklin also distributed child pornography on multiple occasions, and he received and possessed child pornography, including depictions of infants and of sadistic and masochistic conduct.
Acklin was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams. Acklin was sentenced to 360 months’ imprisonment and was ordered to make $15,000 in restitution. He must also serve a ten-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc . For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”
Acklin is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Devra T. Hake and investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl . The case file number is 25-CR-2057.
Follow us on X @USAO_NDIA.
Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office — Northern District of Iowa — U.S. Department of Justice press release.