Even the "case with the soldier", what someone is fixating on are news headlines. If you read one article, it says "children he knew".
Making a sexual depiction of a particular minor is illegal, yes. This seems very rare, particularly compared to sexual depictions of a fictional minor.
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Also, legal scholars have written papers fairly recently about how this context matters a lot to a U.S. Court.
Of course, chances are that someone doesn't have to go after that specifically, as they're involved in other criminal activity.