Drake Bell Explains Child Endangerment Case Against Him, DMs Gone Wrong

Drake Bell is setting the record straight regarding the child endangerment claims against him from a few years back -- and he basically says it was a case of DMs gone awry.

The former child star went on Tuesday's episode of the "Not Skinny But Not Fat" podcast to explain the whole thing ... the first time he's done so in-depth and in detail from his own perspective. It's interesting ... while he pleaded guilty, he denies any real wrongdoing.

Take a listen ... Drake explains that he had been communicating with someone online that he shouldn't have -- something he says he came to realize a little too late.

Drake says once he understood that the person he was talking to via DM was underage, he cut it off entirely ... and claims this person then started trying to blow him up, seemingly upset by him abandoning ship. DB says this person then levied false claims against him.

Over the course of a lengthy investigation, Drake says it became clear that he had not done anything untoward in his correspondence with this person -- but in the end, he decided to plead guilty to child endangerment ... noting he was being drained financially and emotionally.

Drake acknowledges that he got himself into a messy situation which he should've avoided altogether -- but in terms of actually acting inappropriately ... he insists he didn't.

Of course, the reason he's even talking about this right now is because he recently came forward to reveal that he'd been sexually abused by Brian Peck as a teenager.