MACON — Michael J. Moore, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia, announced that Douglas Roseth, 23, of Americus, entered a plea of guilty today to one count of production of child pornography before the Honorable Clay D. Land, U.S. District Court Judge, in Columbus, Georgia.

Roseth admitted that he posed as a teenage girl on social media chats and enticed young boys to masturbate and expose themselves to him. Sexually explicit screenshots of these chats were found by the United States Secret Service after they assumed the investigation and forensically examined Roseth’s computers. Secret Service agents were able to track down several of the boys who identified sexually explicit screen shots of themselves that had been taken during social media chats. Each boy stated they had been enticed to do so by what they presumed to be a teenage girl while on a social media site.

The plea agreement carries a mandatory minimum statutory penalty of 15 years imprisonment up to a maximum of 30 years imprisonment, a maximum fine of $250,000, or both. Roseth will also be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.

“This case reminds us that child predators will use whatever they can to entice child victims into their traps. As parents, we must be vigilant about monitoring our children’s use of computers, and as law enforcement we must remember that people like Mr. Roseth use deceit to lure their prey, requiring us to spare no resource or effort to find and catch producers of child pornography,” said U.S. Attorney Moore.

The case is being investigated by the United States Secret Service, as well as the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Columbus Police Department, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Assistant United States Attorney Crawford Seals is prosecuting the case for the Government.