A registered sex offender from Darlington, Maryland is facing a new round of federal charges after prosecutors say he coerced minors across three states into producing sexually explicit videos, in some cases traveling to their homes to carry out the abuse himself. Jason Alex Candelaria is charged with production of child sex abuse material, online coercion and enticement, and possession of child sex abuse material.
According to foxbaltimore.com, Candelaria is 34 years old, though a separate report from LancasterOnline lists him as 35 and identifies him as a Harford County resident rather than specifically Darlington. The Baltimore Sun reports that the Darlington man, already a registered sex offender, is accused of using social media to coerce minors in Maryland, Pennsylvania and North Carolina into making explicit videos, and he also faces rape charges in Harford County.
The U.S. Department of Justice said a federal grand jury indicted the Harford County man in connection with child sexual abuse charges spanning the three states, according to the agency's announcement. Investigators allege that in November and December 2025, Candelaria used several social media platforms to contact minors in those states, then allegedly coerced and enticed them into producing explicit videos of themselves, which he secretly recorded, the outlet's report states.
Allegations of In-Person Encounters
In some cases, Candelaria allegedly traveled to the homes of the minor victims to engage in sexual acts, some of which he recorded, and authorities later recovered those videos from his cellphone, the station's report notes. Prosecutors say the suspect coerced victims into having sex and then making videos of the acts, according to the Baltimore Sun's reporting on the Harford County case.
Separate reporting out of Pennsylvania describes additional charges against Candelaria tied to an alleged assault involving a Martic Township girl. Detectives in that case later traced his IP address and learned he was a registered sex offender in Maryland, according to fox43.com. In that case, he faces charges including unlawful contact with a minor and aggravated indecent assault.
Posing as a Teen on Snapchat
The Pennsylvania reporting indicates Candelaria allegedly posed as a 16-year-old named Alex on Snapchat to contact a 13-year-old girl and lure her to a boat ramp in Lancaster for a sexual assault. Charging documents cited by LancasterOnline say Candelaria contacted a 14-year-old girl via Snapchat in September 2025 and asked to meet her.
A Broader Pattern of Online Exploitation
The case arrives amid a sharp rise in reported online exploitation of children nationally. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reported a 158% increase in CyberTipline reports concerning online enticement in 2025 compared with the previous year, according to missingkids.org. The organization's CyberTipline received 1.4 million reports concerning online enticement in 2025, including more than 80,000 reports concerning sextortion, the data shows.
NCMEC also reported that child sex trafficking reports increased 323% compared with 2024, and the organization received an average of 137 financial sextortion reports per day in 2025, a 37% increase from the year before, per the same data. Those figures provide context for a type of crime investigators say is becoming more common, though they are not evidence tied specifically to the Candelaria case.
