Missing Teen Exploited for Child Pornography Located Thanks to Nintendo Switch

The missing teen, who was being searched for in her home state of Virginia, was thousands of miles away in Arizona with adult male Ethan Roberts, who is now imprisoned.

Roberts first got in contact with the 14-year-old in January 2022 over Omegle, a social media platform meant to randomly connect people via one-on-one video chats. In an interview with the FBI, per The Virginian Pilot, the now 15-year-old girl explained that she had informed Roberts of her age, but that he had continued to befriend her online.

In August of that year, Roberts took a bus from Arizona to Virginia where he met with the teen, later taking her back to his apartment complex in Tolleson, Arizona. According to Federal court records, per ABC15, the teen had been missing for nearly 11 days when the then 28-year-old forced her into child pornography. However, records also showed that Roberts had let the teen bring a Nintendo Switch along with her — its digital footprint ultimately saving her.

With law enforcement and volunteers exhausting their local search for the young girl over 2000 miles away, it was a friend that ended up noticing the teen had gone online on her Switch — immediately notifying authorities of the discovery.

The FBI was able to track the Switch’s IP address, in turn leading them to Robert’s apartment where he and the young girl were then found. He was arrested, later being indicted for charges including child pornography, intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, and transportation of a minor according to a press release from the Eastern District of Virginia. He copped a plea deal and was sentenced to 30 years in a federal prison in April 2023.

A spokesperson for Omegle spoke with Forbes, saying that “users are solely responsible for their behavior while using the website.”

“Omegle has voluntarily implemented content moderation services that use both AI tools and human moderatorsm,” continued the statement. “Content flagged as illegal, inappropriate or in violation of Omegle’s policies can lead to a number of actions, including reports to appropriate law enforcement agencies.”