MARQUETTE, MI – A 19-year-old man from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexually exploiting a child, authorities said.

Kelton Salowitz, 19, of Curtis, pleaded guilty to charges related to repeatedly asking a 12-year-old girl to send him sexually explicit photos and videos, according to a press release from the US Department of Justice.

Salowitz’s 15 years in federal prison will be followed by 10 years of supervised release.

“We cannot fix the harm that Mr. Salowitz inflicted it on children, but today’s sentence is a measure of justice for the victims and an important step to protect the community,” said Mark Totten, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan.

Salowitz communicated with the victim, who lived in another state, on his smartphone through the Discord app. One of the videos recovered from his phone was a recorded live stream of the child performing sexual acts on his instructions.

In addition, Salowitz requested, but did not receive, similar content from another 12-year-old child. Investigators recovered a collection of child pornography on his phone that included videos of men sexually assaulting children.

“This case is also a reminder of the dangers that lurk online,” Totten said. “Without sufficient safeguards, smartphones can give criminals in the United States and around the world access to our children, even in the safety of their homes. Educate your kids, monitor their online activity and let them know they can talk to you too. if I’m wrong.”

Here’s the advice from Homeland Security Investigations how to protect children from online predators:

• Start an open, two-way conversation with your child.
• Password protect or control access to your child’s app store. and game downloads.
• Set time and zone limits for device use and set device check-in times.
• Set all apps, games, and devices to private.
• Turn off location data services on social networks and non-essential apps.
• Talk about data persistence. Online data can last a lifetime.
• Create a contract with your child about online behavior.
• Know your child’s friend lists Remove the strangers.
• Warn your child that they should never leave a game to chat with someone they don’t know on another platform.
• Do not delete messages, images or videos from predators or forward sexually explicit images or videos. Save usernames, screenshots, and images or videos as evidence for law enforcement to collect directly from your device.

Find more information Here.

The Mackinac County Sheriff’s Office and the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, investigated this case, which was part of Safe Childhood Project initiative to protect children from online exploitation and abuse.