A 29-year-old Minot man is accused of uploading child pornography to Pinterest, an online content sharing board, in June 2016.

Nich-olas Rue Piper was scheduled to make an initial appearance in district court in Minot on Tuesday. He is charged with promoting an obscene performance by a minor, a Class A felony carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $20,000 fine, and possession of child pornography, a Class C felony carrying a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

According to a probable cause affidavit filed with the court, Minot police received a tip in December that Piper had uploaded the pornographic image, which showed a sexually explicit image of a girl between the ages of 12 and 15.

The tip came from the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigations Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Piper’s name and address was associated with the Pinterest account.

Police obtained a search warrant for electronic devices in Piper’s home and for content associated with his Pinterest account. The Pinterest account included 36 images, one of which was deemed child porn and 31 of which were deemed “child exploitive,” featuring images of girls between the ages of 4 and 10. Police could not tell how old people in four of the images were, according to the probable cause affidavit.

– Andrea Johnson