An undercover sting by Hall County deputies led to a child exploitation charge for a North Georgia man, authorities said.

Sidney Wayne Phillips, 25, of Blue Ridge, was arrested Thursday after he spoke with an individual he thought was a child on a mobile app and attempted to set up a sexual meeting, the Hall County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

On Nov. 9, Phillips began messaging the person “he knew to be a child” using the app before he “turned the conversation to a sexual nature,” the release said. Investigators said no child was ever in danger.

He asked for them to move the conversation to text messages, and after they did, he asked to meet the individual Nov. 10, the release said.

The suspect didn’t arrive at the meeting location, but detectives were able to determine Phillips’ identity and arrested him, the release said.

He remains in the Hall County Jail without bond, according to jail records.

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Fulton DA Fani Willis (center) with Nathan J. Wade (right), the special prosecutor she hired to manage the Trump case and had a romantic relationship with, at a news conference announcing charges against President-elect Donald Trump and others in Atlanta, Aug. 14, 2023. Georgia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, upheld an appeals court's decision to disqualify Willis from the election interference case against Trump and his allies. (Kenny Holston/New York Times)

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