Cottage Grove man pleads guilty to producing child porn via Snapchat after ‘catfishing’ girls

A Cottage Grove man has pleaded guilty to producing, attempted production and possession of child pornography after he used Snapchat to "catfish" girls.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says 38-year-old Peter James Monson created false personas to interact with kids on the internet, including through Snapchat. According to prosecutors, he made a profile of a 16-year-old girl named "Brianna" and asked girls to send him sexually explicit pictures and videos of themselves so they could be rated by others as "princesses." Through the profile, from June 2019 to April 2020, he instructed girls to follow certain rules, such as being nude or engaging in sexual acts.

Authorities say Monson also used his cellphone to make a secret recording of an 8-year-old while the child was getting dressed in April 2020.

Anyone who may have been a victim of exploitation is asked to call the National Center for Missing or Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678 or visit NCMEC’s website.