Austin Jones was arrested on Monday night. The YouTube star rose to fame with his covers, which appealed to fans both young and old. That first half of his fan base has led to some real trouble for him. He was arrested on two counts of child pornography, which is, after all, one of the most despicable crimes imaginable. The Chicago Sun-Times first reported the news, with E! later confirming the disturbing details about the latest fallen star.
Jones facing charges
Jones will have his first court appearance on Wednesday morning after getting picked up on Monday night in Chicago.
He was taken into custody by Customs and Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations after landing at a Chicago airport. He admitted to the charges during an interview with law enforcement and will not be allowed to leave custody at this time because he is considered a flight risk and a danger to his community.
The charges stem from two different communications the YouTube star had with underage females in August 2016 and May 2017, with both sets of interactions taking place over Facebook. The complaint states that Jones asked at least one of these underage females to showcase their fandom for him by sending videos that were sexually explicit. If convicted, Jones would face at least 15 years in prison.
Jones not new to this
Jones rose to fame as a YouTube cover artist, garnering over 500,000 subscriptions on his channel. He started his YouTube page in 2007 and has put out well-received covers of pop stars and rock bands alike. His medley of twenty one pilots songs has reached over 2.5 million views. His Instagram page has become popular as well and he was even able to release an EP - "We'll Fall Together" - on the back of his Internet stardom in 2014.
This is not the first time he has been faced with controversy involving underage girls, though. In 2015, he allegedly solicited underage girls to send him videos of them twerking, lying about his age in the process. He released a lengthy apology after the incident, stating that he would never ask these young girls to do anything promiscuous and saying that he went to therapy.
Apparently, that was just an inkling into what was really going on with Jones. Should the charges stick around - he has yet to publicly comment on them since his arrest on Monday - he deserves to go away for a long time and his YouTube channel should be suspended and deleted; pedophiles don't deserve public affection or adoration.
