Austin Jones, a 26-year-old YouTuber, pleaded guilty to child porn charges on Friday after he persuaded several young female fans to make and send him sexually explicit videos.

He is faced with five to twenty years in prison, as well as psychological counseling and sex offender treatment.

Jones had convinced six girls, around the ages of 14 and 15, the send him videos performing sexual acts, showing various body parts, and dancing in a provocative manner.

In addition to these instances, Jones also attempted to meet underaged female girls on nearly 30 separate occasions. His eventual arrest came after rumors of Jone’s behavior, where he was said to have told the girls that it was for “modeling” and he could help them out with their popularity online. 

Get offline

Jones has previous convictions; in June 2017 a judge barred him from using the internet and social media. Allegations against him date back to 2015, when a petition circulated to have Jones' performance at Warped Tour dropped. More than 9,000 people signed the document and after some initial debate and pushback from the event organisers, Austin was eventually pulled from the lineup.