DETROIT – A Shoreline, Washington man will spend 55 years in prison for encouraging children to commit sexually explicit acts on web cameras as part of an international child porn ring.
According to the U.S. attorney's office, Michael Berenson, 30, was part of a group that targeted minor girls online.
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From at least January 2012 to November 2014, the group used a chatroom to entice girls to produce child porn on a web camera. According to officials, the men pretended to be teenage boys on social media sites to get the victims to talk to them in chatrooms.
The group would record the acts without the girls' knowledge.
According to officials, Berenson continued to target minors after the group stopped. He recorded them doing sexual acts and blackmailed them until a search warrant was executed at his home in May 2017. Officials said he also encouarged the girls to self-harm and recorded them doing so.
Authorities said Berenson said he preyed on more than 1,000 minor girls over the last 10 years. Some victims were as young as 9, and at least 20 victims have been identified in the U.S.
Berenson was ordered to pay $5,000 to each identified victim.
A forensic examination of his devices recovered more than 9,600 videos and images of child porn and 105,347 child exploitive videos and images. Berenson recorded more than 1,128 hours of videos of child porn and more than 3,000 hours of child exploitative conduct.
Sixteen parents and victims were at Berenson's sentencing hearing and made statements. Among those present was Carol Todd, the mother of Amanda Todd, who died by suicide in October 2012.