Comment by hedora

Perma-deleting the account is destruction of evidence, so even if the criminality is obvious, an account lock makes more sense.

Even an account lock is probably a bad idea; it alerts the pedophile that they're under investigation, allowing them to destroy evidence, cut ties with coconspirators, etc.

Best to let law enforcement deal with it. In this case, assuming it somehow went to trial, the jury would almost certainly acquit, and the account would be restored.

There is the matter of the accused losing access to the account while the case was active though. That's potentially a big deal.