Who is Jeren Miles? Facebook staffer loses job after admitting to sexting minor boy
A global community manager at Meta, Facebook's parent company, lost his job after a video of him confessing to having graphic, inappropriate communications with a supposed 13-year-old boy went viral. It is unclear whether Jeren Miles, 35, was fired from his job or resigned after the video surfaced. The video, which went viral on YouTube, featured him in a sting operation conducted by amateurs. The video was later reposted on Reddit and other social media platforms.
The video, which is two-hour-long, was posted by a vigilante pedophile-hunting group called PCI Predator Catchers Indianapolis on its YouTube page. In the video, Miles cannot be seen engaging in any sex act. He does not admit to any specific sex act either, and neither does he express his intentions of carrying out any sex act. The video features two people questioning Miles, who admits to having graphic and inappropriate communications with a 13-year-old boy.
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After the video went viral, Miles deleted his social media accounts, including Facebook and Twitter. Not much is known about Miles other than his profession, given his social media accounts do not exist anymore. He has not yet been arrested or charged with any crime. "The seriousness of these allegations cannot be overstated. The individual is no longer employed with the company. We are actively investigating this situation and cannot provide further comment at this time,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement to Tech Crunch.
Who is Corey?
The Daily Mail obtained texts Miles sent to a supposed minor called Corey, telling him it was a "safe space". Miles began messaging the boy on November 22, sending him a private message saying, "Hey there, do we know each other?" As the conversation moved forward, Miles told Corey that he wanted to explore things "whenever you feel ready". When the supposed 13-year-old asked him to elaborate what he meant, Miles wrote, "I love naked cuddles on a cold evening. With you pressed up against me." In a series of uncomfortable messages, Miles told Corey, "It’s about what you want to do that you like, or something you want to try. Safe space here."
'Corey' was in fact a fake account set up by Predator Catchers Indianapolis (PCI). Speaking to Corey, Miles wrote, "I like the sweet cuddles…but I also like to bend a boy over and pound him while he calls me daddy,’ and told the teenager ‘I won’t have any restraint around you if I’m horny." Miles arranged to meet Corey while on a trip to Columbus, and gave him his hotel room number at Le Méridien downtown in the city. Predator Catchers Indianapolis founder Eric Schmutte and his colleague Shanda Nolley then showed up at Miles' hotel room, where he confessed to sending these messages to the supposed 13-year-old boy, which was caught on camera and eventually posted on YouTube by the group.
"So you’re ok with talking sexual online as long as you don’t meet the children?" Nolley asked Miles. "This is the one time I’ve done this," Miles replied. Nolley said that the Corey account has exposed several other predators too. She added that Facebook deleted the account after the video went viral on Facebook. "It’s unfortunate, because I did have other predators that were ready to be caught on there," she said.
She said that YouTube has also warned their channel for breaching its terms of use. "After all this went down, we got two strikes on our main YouTube channel," Nolley said. "We get one more strike and they delete the channel. It's hard for us to find platforms where we can share this information. We're trying to educate communities and bring awareness to this issue."