Man convicted for ‘sextortion’ of more than 100 children on Omegle, Snapchat, and TikTok

A Nevada man was sentenced to 65 years in prison, followed by lifetime supervised release, for sextorting more than 100 children on Omegle, Snapchat, TikTok, and Mega and distributing child sexual abuse material on dark web forums.

From 2018 to 2021, James Patrick Burns used several platforms to contact minors and coerce or threaten them into producing sexually explicit content, according to court documents presented at trial. Prosecutors called Burns the “most prolific creator” of illegal content on these forums in the years he was active.

Snap released new features last month intended to protect teen users from sextortion scams. The features include in-app warning messages when teenagers get messages from users other people have blocked or reported and automatic friend request blocks for accounts that have “a history of accessing Snapchat in locations often associated with scamming activity.”

The video chat service Omegle was regularly besieged by criticisms that it enabled child sexual abuse before it shut down in 2023. In late 2021, an 11-year-old girl filed a lawsuit against Omegle, alleging that the matching system paired her with a man who sexually abused her. 

In a statement announcing Omegle’s closure, founder Leif K-Brooks said operating the platform was “no longer sustainable, financially, nor psychologically.” 

“There can be no honest accounting of Omegle without acknowledging that some people misused it, including to commit unspeakably heinous crimes,” K-Brooks wrote at the time.

The FBI has noted a “huge increase” in online sextortion scams, particularly those targeting children and minors. Perpetrators will often threaten children or teenagers, claiming they’ll release sexually explicit photos of them unless they send over money — or more explicit content. The scams have “resulted in an alarming number of deaths by suicide,” according to the FBI.

Burns, 55, was convicted in March on eight counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, eight counts of coercion and enticement of a minor, and one count each of advertising, receiving, distributing, and possessing child pornography. Burns was also convicted of committing certain felony offenses while being a registered sex offender, which he was at the time the crimes occurred. In addition to prison time, he has to pay more than $100,000 in restitution and assessments.

Many of Burns’ victims have yet to be identified, according to a Department of Justice press release. Burns first came to law enforcement’s attention after a victim’s mother saw threats on her child’s phone and reported them to the police, prosecutors said.