The internet is an interesting place. One thing is very obvious: in the era of the cyber age, and especially compared to the pre-internet era, things are happening at breakneck speed, whether good or bad. Such is the story of Austin Jones, a musician from Chicago and a Youtube veteran. Many of his fans thought he still had a lot to do before his arrest.
The Youtuber had been on the platform for 10 successful years, starting in 2007. However, his story changed in 2017 when he was arrested for multiple sex offenses and things started to go downhill. Now, whenever anyone thinks of the name Austin Jones, all they can imagine is a blond-haired young man dressed in the traditional orange inmate garb and standing in front of a judge.
Who is Austin Jones?
Maybe Austin likes to keep a private life or there really isn’t much to talk about. Anyway, there is not much information about his life before starting a career on Youtube. Perhaps the only known public information is that his middle name is Jefferson and he was born on December 12, 1992, in Bloomingdale’s, Illinois, although some sources say it’s Chicago.
Coming to recognition with his foray into Youtube content creation in 2007, the young lad from Illinois decided to focus on music and music-related content. Launching his ‘AusdudePro’ Youtube channel, he has released everything from original music to acapella renditions of popular songs by popular solo artists and bands.
Austin Jefferson Jones back when he was a Youtubera did covers for Panic songs! at the disco, My Chemical Romance, Twenty One Pilots, Fall Out Boys and a host of other musical ensembles. Some of his covers were for famous songs such as Welcome to the Black Parade, Pierce the Veil, Sugar We Go It’ Down and I Write Sins Not Tragedies. He also made cover art for every track on the Blurred Surface album by Twenty One Pilots.
After years of making himself known to other people’s music, the self-proclaimed alternative pop singer has presented himself with his first project. The EP was titled We Will Fall Together and was released in 2014. Two years later, following the success of his EP, Austin Jones released his debut studio album. Pitch Imperfect, obviously a nod to the Perfect Musical movie franchise.
In 2017, he teamed up with a few other Youtube personalities to embark on an international tour for his album. He has performed in Germany and Poland, among others, where he performed with fellow internet stars Johnny Orlando and Bars & Melody.
Before his troubles began, the musician’s channel had garnered over 530,000 subscribers and his 40 videos had been viewed over 40 million times.
Why was he arrested, imprisoned and banned from the Internet?
Before the hammer finally went to trial on the Illinois native in 2017, Jones escaped a similar possibility in 2015 due to the way he acted around a few of his fans, who were underage at the time. era. The Youtubers had persuaded the girls in question to make a video. He even gave instructions on how to perform the dance while recording himself.
After these incidents were made public by PupFresh, a music website in May 2015, the public started to react. A petition has been started to cancel his participation in the Warped Tour, an event he was already scheduled for. However, he would perform later in the show as the petition did not gather the required number of signatures.
He then made a video on his channel titled “Setting the Records Straight”. Here, he admitted to the allegations, apologized for his actions and pointed out that there was no nudity in his correspondence with fans. The video was over 16 minutes long and had over 860,000 views as of December 2018.
His demons came back to chase him, however, when he was arrested Monday, June 12, 2017, by Homeland Security at Chicago O’Hare International Airport. Austin Jones was arrested on counts of producing child pornography. It emerged that he again contacted an underage female fan and attempted to film her in compromising and sexually explicit scenarios, following her detailed instructions. According to their correspondence, it was a way for her to prove that she was his biggest fan.
There would be no free pass this time around. Nonetheless, he was allowed to return to his mother’s home three days after his arrest after posting $100,000 bond. His release was conditional on him remaining locked up at his mother’s home and banned from using the internet while waiting for his trial date to take place. If convicted, the Youtuber faces an ideal scenario of 15 years in prison.