Former middle school employee sentenced to 20 years for sextortion scheme

A Coon Rapids man who worked as a paraprofessional in special education will serve 20 years in federal prison for an online sextortion scheme targeting children, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Minnesota.

Glen Robert Anderson, 24, was sentenced on Wednesday after he pleaded guilty in June to two counts of production of child pornography and one count each of enticement of a minor and interstate communications with intent to extort.

His prison time will be followed by 12 years of supervised release.

Prosecutors say Anderson used several social media platforms, including Snapchat and Grindr, to communicate and share files with minors. He also ran an online gaming forum that required users to submit their ages upon applying.

From 2016-21, Anderson, acting as administrator of the gaming forum, groomed minors to produce child sexual abuse material and perform sexual acts with him. Charging documents state Anderson coerced these children with the promise of in-game perks, privileges and other gifts.

In one instance, Anderson used a teenage victim to produce explicit sexual content and threatened to release that content if the victim did not answer his demands.