Former YouTube Star Austin Jones Pleads Guilty To Child Pornography Charge
Chicago (CBS) -- A YouTube star from Bloomingdale pleaded guilty to one count of receipt of child pornography Friday.
Austin Jones, 26, faces a minimum sentence of fives years in prison and a maximum sentence of 20 years for enticing underage girls to produce sexually explicit videos of themselves.
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Jones began posting his music videos to YouTube in 2013. His YouTube page currently has more than 500,000 subscribers and his videos have millions of views.
He admitted in a plea agreement that in 2016 and 2017, he chatted with six underage girls on Facebook and enticed them to produce lewd videos of themselves and sent them to him.
A federal complaint details videos and conversations Jones had with two 14-year-old girls.
In one, the complaint says, he tried to get a girl to take all her clothes off, telling her, "I know you're trying your hardest to prove you're my biggest fan. And I don't want to have to find someone else."
He also told some of his victims that the videos were part of a modeling opportunity, and that he could assist them in gaining followers on Instagram, the plea agreement states.
In addition to the six victims whom he enticed to send videos, Jones further admitted in the plea agreement that he used Facebook on approximately 30 other occasions to attempt to persuade minor girls to send him sexually explicit videos and photos.
Jones is scheduled to be sentenced May 3.