{"id":11620,"date":"2026-07-20T15:00:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T10:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=11620"},"modified":"2026-07-20T15:00:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T10:00:02","slug":"meta-worker-who-developed-digital-experiences-for-kids-admits-to-trying-to-sext-child-in-undercover-nyc-sting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=11620","title":{"rendered":"META worker who developed &#8216;digital experiences for kids&#8217; admits to trying to sext child in undercover NYC sting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F07%2FMETA-Engineer-Perv-Arrested.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A New York City engineer who said he created \u201cdigital experiences for kids\u201d at social media giant Meta was busted after he admitted to trying to sext a 13-year-old during an undercover sting.<\/p>\n<p>Josh Felker, 44, whose now-deleted LinkedIn page said he worked for the Facebook parent company, admitted he had been grooming and sexting someone he thought was a teen girl during a sting by <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/10\/16\/us-news\/ny-elementary-school-teacher-allegedly-admitted-to-sexting-girl-13\/\">Predator Poachers Long Island<\/a>, a vigilante group that seeks to catch would-be pervs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven though inappropriate things had already gone on, I just almost wish I could be her dad,\u201d Felker, who is married and has a small child, shockingly told a member of the group posing as his would-be victim\u2019s grandmother on the phone, according to video of the encounter set to be released Monday.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Josh Felker, 44, whose now-deleted LinkedIn page detailed that he worked on creating \u201cgreat digital experiences for kids\u201d at Meta, was caught on video admitting to sexting someone he believed was a 13-year-old girl. <span class=\"credit\">pplongisland\/Instagram<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Felker, who listed his job as an Engineering Manager for the tech giant, reached out to the group\u2019s 13-year-old \u201cdecoy account\u201d in May and has been messaging them regularly since, the group said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It didn\u2019t take long after before Felker allegedly started making a slew of sick remarks \u2014 including trying to teach the girl how to masturbate \u2014 while sending multiple photos and videos of himself doing the same and even trying to set up days to meet her in person, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/10\/16\/us-news\/long-island-elementary-school-teacher-caught-undercover-sexting-sting-had-mega-stash-child-porn-blamed-wife\/\">Mike Villani<\/a>, one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/11\/25\/us-news\/youtube-allegedly-tiffs-predator-poachers-who-caught-li-teacher-in-sting-op\/\">predator catchers<\/a> who led the poach, told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>The group approached Felker to his surprise outside of his Murray Hill apartment Wednesday, and he initially tried to flee the poachers before eventually agreeing to sit down at a nearby location to talk, as his mother-in-law was inside, and he didn\u2019t want her to overhear that he was cheating on his wife by grooming who he thought was a minor, the video showed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>\u201cEven though inappropriate things had already gone on, I just almost wish I could be her dad,\u201d Felker, who is married and has a small child, shockingly told the vigilante posing as his victim\u2019s grandmother on the phone. <span class=\"credit\">Predator Poachers Long Island<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When confronted with his chat logs, Felker admitted it was him messaging who he thought was the young teen, who doesn\u2019t actually exist, and detailed that this was not the first minor he\u2019s groomed, according to the video.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI did this once before with another girl who is underaged,\u201d he said, strangely likening the teens to \u201cany port in a storm.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Mike Villani, right, is one of the predator catchers who led the poach and set up the phone call with the fake grandma, whom he came clean to. <span class=\"credit\">Predator Poachers Long Island<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Felker then bizarrely blamed his wife and their sex-less marriage for fueling his sick perversions, which he said has pushed him into dark corners of the internet.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The group\u2019s encounter with Felker, which was just under two hours long, ended with police arriving just after he allegedly finished admitting to his sick crimes, and was arrested just blocks away from his Manhattan apartment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Felker is charged with disseminating indecent material to minors and endangering the welfare of a child.<\/p>\n<p>He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Thursday and is due back in court on Sept.9.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Meta didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A New York City engineer who said he created \u201cdigital experiences for kids\u201d at social media giant Meta was busted after he admitted to trying to sext a 13-year-old during an undercover sting. Josh Felker, 44, whose now-deleted LinkedIn page said he worked for the Facebook parent company, admitted he had been grooming and sexting&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/META-Engineer-Perv-Arrested.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}