Oak Brook man enticed underage girls to send him sexually explicit photos, videos: officials

CHICAGO - An Oak Brook man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for using social media to persuade underage girls to send him sexually explicit photos and videos of themselves.

Thomas Vivirito, 27, pleaded guilty earlier this year to federal child pornography charges.

Officials say that in 2018 and 2019, Vivirito used Instagram, Snapchat and text messaging services to talk to more than a dozen underage girls — some as young as 12-years-old — to get them to send him sexually explicit photos and videos of themselves.

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Vivirito admitted that in some cases he told the victims what they should do in the photos and videos, officials said.

"Victim by victim, and message by message, defendant groomed and attempted to groom over a dozen young girls over social media," Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ashley A. Chung and Christine M. O’Neill said in a statement.

"With each new victim, each sexual message, and each explicit image received or downloaded, defendant robbed young girls of their childhood and wreaked trauma in their lives."

On Friday, Vivirito was given the sentence of 18 years by U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Kendall.

Anyone who believes they were a victim of sexual exploitation is asked to contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at www.missingkids.org or calling 800-843-5678.