COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Westerville man pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to sextortion and child exploitation charges after extorting minors he met on TikTok and Snapchat into making sexually explicit content, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio.
Christian N. Davidson, 27, pleaded guilty to two counts of transmitting interstate communications with the intent to extort, two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of possession of child pornography, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The plea was entered before U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus Jr. and was announced by U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II and Jason Cromartie, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Cincinnati division, according to the release.
According to court documents cited in the release, Davidson engaged in a sextortion campaign in 2024 and 2025 targeting multiple minor victims. He threatened to expose sexually explicit images of the victims, threatened physical harm to the victims and their family members, posted some of the sexual content online, and used the images to create social media accounts in the victims’ names, according to the release.
In one example cited in the release, Davidson contacted a minor on TikTok in August 2024 and said he would tell her parents information about her drinking and drug use unless she took part in a video call, during which he took explicit screenshots of her. When she refused further demands, he created TikTok accounts using her name and sexual images, according to the release.
In another example, in 2018 and 2019, Davidson used Snapchat to demand sexual content from a victim, created new accounts to keep contacting her after she blocked him, and cited personal details of her life, including her address and her father’s death, according to the release. The release says that when the victim told Davidson she had reported him to police, he told her police could not trace him.
The FBI opened its investigation based on information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Marysville, Worthington and East Liverpool police departments, the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center and the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, according to the release. Davidson was arrested and charged by criminal complaint in October 2025.
Sexual exploitation of a minor carries a sentence of 15 to 30 years in prison, possession of child pornography is punishable by up to 20 years, and transmitting interstate communications with the intent to extort carries up to two years, according to the release. Davidson’s plea agreement includes a recommended sentence of 25 to 40 years in prison. No sentencing date has been set; the release says sentencing will be determined by the court at a future hearing based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not identify any victim or give any victim’s age, and said only that Davidson targeted multiple minor victims. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Czerniejewski is representing the United States in the case, which the release says is part of Project Safe Childhood, the Justice Department’s nationwide initiative against child sexual exploitation.
