A Taiwanese army lieutenant has been convicted of using in-game currency to coax an underage girl into filming sexual images of herself, a case that ends with prison time but no time served.

• The officer met the girl on a dating app last year and repeatedly offered game credits in exchange for explicit photos and videos, which he stored in his cloud drive.
• The girl's mother found the messages on her phone and went straight to the police, who searched his home and workplace and seized his phone and cloud account.
• The New Taipei District Court handed down two years in prison but suspended it for five years, citing no prior record, a full confession, and the fact that he never shared the images.
• He must report to probation officers, sit through three legal-education classes, and pay a fine to the state treasury; his offer of compensation was refused by the family, so no settlement was reached.

Outlook: The verdict can still be appealed, and the light sentence for a serving officer is likely to draw criticism over how Taiwan's courts treat child sexual exploitation cases.