Teen charged with child pornography

TAMPA, Fla., July 22 (UPI) -- A Florida teen has been charged as an adult with 50 counts of possession of child pornography for trading images and videos of young children on his computer.

Patrick Melton, 16, of Tampa, was arrested at his home and ordered held on $100,000 bond after the Florida attorney's office decided that he should be tried as an adult, The St. Petersburg Times reported Wednesday.

"I believe he's the youngest person we've ever arrested for this type of crime," said J.D. Callaway, a spokesman for the Hillsborough County sheriff's office.

Teens interested in pornography are not very common, says David Finkelhor, the director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.

Finkelhor told The Tampa Tribune that orientation towards pedophilia "usually develops later."

Melton, a 10th grader at Tampa Bay Tech High School, was initially arrested in June and booked as a juvenile.