Singer Austin Jones Busted on Child Pornography Charges

• Save

• Save

Austin Jones

YouTube star and singer Austin Jones has just been arrested on child pornography charges.  The criminal counts involve teenage girls aged 14 and 15.

Update: Austin Jones is now facing dismissal from the Vans Warped Tour.  More details here.

YouTube sensation Austin Jones is now in federal custody on multiple child pornography counts.  The arrest follows numerous allegations of soliciting sexual videos from underage fans, specifically underage teenage girls.

Specifically, federal authorities state that Jones pressured fans to send explicit content to ‘prove’ they were his ‘biggest fans’.  The requested acts included everything from dancing naked to performing sexual acts on film.  That behavior  amounts to the criminal act of producing child pornographic content, among other criminal offenses.

The singer made the solicitations on Facebook and iMessage.  Soon thereafter, Jones received a number of homemade video clips.

Austin Jones is 24.  He resides in Bloomington, a city southwest of Chicago.

Court paperwork obtained by Digital Music News offers more details into the upcoming criminal trial.

So what’s next for Jones?  The singer has already appeared in front of a judge at the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.  At this stage, Jones is facing a minimum of 15 years in prison.  Undoubtedly, his defense effort will involve considerable expense, and probably the end of Jones’ budding career.

Michael Ploessl of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) filed the criminal complaint.  The complaint (see below) also indicates that Jones’ residence was searched on Monday.

Accordingly, Jones was interrogated after his arrest.  He is currently cooperating with authorities.

“Specifically, Jones used Facebook and Apple’s iMessage service to request and receive videos depicting the genitalia of minor females, knowing that they were only 14 or 15 years old,” the criminal complaint reads.  “Jones conducted online conversations where he persuaded and enticed the minor females to send him child pornography using electronic devices connected to the Internet from his residence.”

According to the Chicago Sun Times, Jones was arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport earlier this week.  Jones was described as ‘timid’ as he appeared in federal court donning an orange jumpsuit.

YouTube has not reacted to the developments. Currently, Jones’ videos remain online.

For those unfamiliar with Jones, here’s a quick video of his musical style.   His channel has 548,000 followers; this video variation of ‘Blurryface’ has over 2.5 million views.

That level of talent and celebrity put Jones in a powerful position.  Accordingly, his followers included lots of younger fans, many of whom were eager to win the singer’s approval.  Which is where things got really ugly.

During the interrogation, Jones admitted to wrongdoing.  His admissions formed a large part of the complaint:

“He admitted that he had used Facebook to have sexually explicit chats with the girls; that he directed them to make videos of themselves dancing in a sexually explicit way and instructed them on what to wear, say, and do in the videos, including performing sexual acts, knowing that they were fourteen to fifteen years old; that he requested that they send the sexually explicit videos to him, either via Facebook or Apple’s iMessage service; and that he received the videos, viewed them, and masturbated while watching them.”

Here’s the full criminal complaint filed against Jones.