Austin Jones the former YouTube star has been sentenced to 10 years in U.S. federal prison after found guilty to convince under-age girls to send him adult videos of themselves.
Austin Jones, who has been trying hard to make his name online singing covers of songs, was arrested and charged in 2017 for producing child pornography.
He was later found guilty to one charge of receiving child pornography — admitting in an agreement that in 2016 and 2017, he took advantage of six girls to produce and send adult videos to “prove” they were his so called “biggest fans”, per Buzzfeed.
“Production and receipt of child pornography are extraordinarily serious offenses that threaten the safety of our children and communities,” it quotes assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Neff Welsh writing in a sentencing memo. “Jones’s actions took something from his victims and their families that they will never be able to get back.”
Looking at Jones YouTube Career, he has around 540,000 subscribers to his YT channel and more than 20 Million video views.
In a 2015 apology vlog, many reports have raised to Jones asking his young fans to send him twerking videos, he claimed that it never went further than that. “There Were Never Any Nudes, Never Any Physical Contact, It Never Happened,” he said then.
But, Jones admitted that he attempted to take advantage of his under-aged fans to send him adult photos or videos.
YouTuber removed Jones, YouTube channel after, he was found guilty in Febraury — Google says he violated community guidelines.
In a vlog posted on YouTube, one of Jones former fan, she had also received messages from Jones asking her for twerking videos prior to his 2015 apology video when she was 14 years old.
“I just don’t understand how these people can let the fame get to their heads that much that they think it’s alright to do something to people like this,” she said. “It’s so messed up. But the fact that his fanbase was these vulnerable, insecure young girls makes it so much worse than it already is… He knew that that was his fanbase and he took advantage of that.”
