BATON ROUGE - A man was arrested Tuesday after a months-long investigation into his involvement in child pornography. 

The East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office said 31-year-old Christopher Hawkins was reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children after his SnapChat account was flagged and taken down due to child sexual abuse material uploaded to the account. 

Deputies said Hawkins opened the account Oct. 15, 2023. By the time it was disabled three weeks later, Hawkins had communicated with 43 male juveniles. Deputies said Hawkins shared photos and videos of himself performing sex acts for the camera and encouraged the juveniles to share images as well. 

Hawkins and another user messaged "about their fantasy of having sex with male juveniles, as young as 12-years-old," arrest paperwork said. Hawkins told the user that he had child pornography, but said he prefers to sell it instead of share it. 

Arrest documents said Hawkins bragged about having plans to meet a 17-year-old male for sex while the juvenile's parents were away. Hawkins also asked different teenagers to travel to Louisiana to have sex with him. 

Deputies said the juveniles disclosed their ages to Hawkins at the beginning of conversations, but he continued asking and sharing for sexual content after knowing they victims were juveniles. Hawkins sent 25 nude images or videos of himself to juveniles and there were eight juveniles that Hawkins solicited after knowing their age. 

Hawkins was arrested for eight counts of computer-aided solicitation of a minor and 25 counts of pornography involving juveniles.