A Honolulu man was sentenced Feb. 11 to 15 years in prison after coercing underage girls into producing and sharing sexually explicit content.
Devan Caulk, 21, pled guilty last October to a charge of producing child pornography after a series of incidents throughout 2025 involving minors on Instagram.
According to a report by the FBI’s Honolulu Division, Caulk used Instagram to reach out to two minor users in Canada and Washington. Using multiple accounts, he claimed in one instance to be 15 years old and in another to be 19 years old, and requested nude photos of the two minors.
After receiving those images, Caulk then reportedly coerced the minors into producing more sexual content by threatening to release those photos to their friends and family. Throughout these exchanges, the victims repeatedly told Caulk they were underage and one of them said she would kill herself if Caulk leaked the photos.
Instagram itself tipped off law enforcement about Caulk’s actions. The FBI report states that Meta Platforms Inc. — Instagram’s parent company — forwarded the FBI a tip in April 2025 that a user was sexually extorting minors via Instagram.
Meta’s tip indicated that an AI “adult classifier” model determined the victims’ true ages — one of the victims had listed her age as 17 on Instagram but told Caulk she was 13 — and determined based on the victims’ interactions with Caulk that they were being exploited.
The victim from Washington told law enforcement that Caulk never turned on his camera or showed his face, leading her to believe him to be the same age as her. She said Caulk claimed that he knew where she lived and threatened to hurt people around her if she didn’t do what he said.
The FBI visited Caulk’s residence in July 2025, when Caulk confirmed he had sexually explicit conversations with both victims, that he knew they were minors and that he threatened them into sharing more sexual material. He also told officers he was engaged in similar activity with another minor victim in the Philippines via the communication app Discord.
A U.S. District Court judge sentenced Caulk to 15 years in federal prison followed by 10 years of supervised release. The terms of his release will require him to have no contact with minors without the permission of a probation officer and will have his access to the internet and computers closely monitored. He will also be required to register as a sex offender.
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