When 30-year-old Jared Follin’s 63-year-old father, Gene Follin, needed tech support on his cellphone, he happily helped. Gene Follin was unexpectedly signed out of his Gmail account, and while Jared Follin tried to restore access, he found something horrific on his father’s phone.
The older man allegedly had nearly 1,000 child pornography images on his phone. Disgusted, Jared Follin turned his father in to the police, and now the elder Follin faces 20 counts of possession of child pornography.
The Smoking Gun reported that Gene Follin’s email issues stemmed from him allegedly downloading explicit imagery. Google reportedly flagged the account because of illegal images of children in his Google Photos account.
Per a police report obtained by the Smoking Gun, Jared Follin contacted police on September 10, 2024. He reportedly expressed concern over what his father allegedly downloaded to the phone at that time.
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It took months, but after a thorough investigation, police ultimately arrested Gene Follin on January 28, 2025. He faces 20 counts of possession of child pornography, and each carries up to 15 years in prison.
Unilad posted about Gene Follin’s case on Facebook, and the story stirred up quite a conversation.
Someone wrote, “Crappy son for doing that to his dad regardless of bad father.”
But very few agreed with that sentiment.
As one person wrote, “Anyone laughing or disagreeing with the son’s decision is obviously part of the mature snitches-get-stitches crowd. Those people need to grow TF up.”
“Anyone who thinks this lad did wrong is severely fukt up. Serious and predatory crimes should always be reported, no matter who they are!” someone else exclaimed.
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Many praised Jared Follin for his bravery.
“Good lad, you did the right thing,” one person wrote. “I know it’s difficult cause it’s family but it had to be done…”
Another person agreed and commented, “Stand behind the son 100%…so grateful there are still honest, decent people in the world.”
Per the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, Gene Follin bonded out of jail on January 30.
