Minnesota Man Sentenced to 15 Years for Producing Child Pornography

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A Fulda, Minnesota, man was sentenced in federal court today for exchanging pornographic photos and videos online with an 11-year-old child victim in Boone County, Mo.

Douglas Howard Canfield, 56, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes to 15 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Canfield to eight years of supervised release following incarceration. Canfield will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison and will be subject to federal and state sex offender registration requirements, which may apply throughout his life.

On March 1, 2022, Canfield pleaded guilty to attempting to produce child pornography. Canfield admitted that he sent pornographic photos and videos of himself to the child victim and solicited pornographic photos from the child victim. Canfield communicated with the child victim over the Fastmeet dating application on her cell phone. Canfield engaged the child victim in explicit conversations about sex on numerous occasions in June 2019.

In July 2019, the Boone County, Mo., Children’s Division received an anonymous report regarding the child victim’s online activity. A Boone County sheriff’s deputy contacted the child victim’s mother, who turned over the cell phone to investigators and granted permission for them to examine the phone and access the child victim’s accounts. Investigators identified Canfield, who was contacted by the FBI in Minnesota.

Canfield admitted to investigators that he used the Fastmeet application to communicate with four or five minor females, from whom Canfield solicited pornographic images.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ashley S. Turner. It was investigated by the Boone County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department Cyber Crimes Task Force and the FBI.

Project Safe Childhood

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc . For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”