A 24-year-old man from the tiny Lake Huron village of Port Hope is facing federal charges after investigators say he asked a 10-year-old girl for nude photos on TikTok. Carson James Lee Ensign is accused of sexually exploiting a minor and of distributing, receiving, and possessing child sexually abusive material, according to the criminal complaint against him.
According to ClickOnDetroit, the FBI says Ensign contacted the girl on TikTok and requested sexual images.
On October 11, the outlet reports, the person using that phone number allegedly sent sexually explicit messages and, at around 3 a.m., requested and received images from the girl.
Report to Ohio Deputies Triggered Federal Response
The case reached law enforcement after the girl's parent reported the situation to the Allen County Sheriff's Office in Ohio on October 12, telling deputies the girl had been communicating with an unknown person on both TikTok and iMessage, per the same account. The Allen County Sheriff's Office, based in Lima, serves a jurisdiction of more than 100,000 residents in western Ohio and operates specialized investigative divisions that helped move the lead to federal authorities quickly.
Because the suspect was operating from rural Michigan while the victim was in Ohio, the interstate nature of the communication and alleged distribution of material triggered federal jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. § 2251. Investigators traced the phone number used to contact the girl back to Ensign as the subscriber, and phone records listed an address in Port Hope, Michigan, the report states.
Federal Agents Go to Port Hope Home
Federal agents went to Ensign's Port Hope address on October 15, and he was reportedly inside when they arrived. The complaint also references a 2021 investigation by the Harbor Beach Police Department into alleged requests for sexual images from minors and alleged sexual conduct in front of them; the Harbor Beach department confirmed to the FBI that it knew Ensign and that he had lived in Port Hope with relatives.
A relative reportedly told investigators that Ensign had changed his phone number within the prior week from the one used to contact the girl, for reasons that remain unknown. The same relative said Ensign maintained Facebook, Snapchat, and TikTok accounts and often used the name Grayson online, according to investigators. A preliminary FBI review of his phone found the TikTok account Graye*** along with images of the girl saved in the phone's gallery, and investigators say they found multiple files of child sexually abusive material tucked into a hidden folder on the device.
Port Hope itself is a village of just 293 residents as of the 2020 Census, making it the second-smallest incorporated village in Huron County, Michigan. The village traces its roots to the 19th century as a lumbering hub along Lake Huron before shifting to agriculture, surviving major regional forest fires in 1871 and 1881 and today retaining several sites on the National Register of Historic Places.
Eastern Michigan Federal Offices
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan has an office in Detroit and branch offices in Flint and Bay City, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.
The stakes in federal court are steep: a conviction for sexual exploitation of a minor under 18 U.S.C. § 2251 carries a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Separately, a conviction for receiving child sexually abusive material under 18 U.S.C. § 2252A carries a mandatory minimum of 5 years, per Blanchard Law.
Part of a Troubling National Pattern
Cases like this one are becoming far more common nationally. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's CyberTipline received more than 36.2 million reports of suspected child sexual abuse in 2023, with reports of online enticement jumping over 300% between 2021 and 2023, according to NCMEC.
TikTok's own terms of service set a minimum age of 13 and are supposed to automatically disable direct messaging for users between 13 and 15. Federal child exploitation prosecutions in Michigan carry conviction rates above 90 percent, a figure attributed to extensive forensic computer analysis by agencies such as the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations, according to the Barone Defense Firm. This case follows a string of similar allegations making headlines in recent months, including a Gilroy TikTok grooming case and charges against a Mount Pleasant influencer accused in a separate child exploitation investigation.
