FBI was able to locate a missing child who was manipulated into leaving her home with the help of her Nintendo Switch which gave away her location.
The child in question reportedly was manipulated into visiting the accused in Virginia who further planned to smuggle her into the world of child pornography. The accused, 28-year-old Ethan Roberts has been nabbed by the police and the authorities managed to get hold of the child before she could be put on a bus to Tolleson.
How FBI located the child?
According to a report from ABC15, Roberts allowed the child to bring her Nintendo Switch which upon connecting to the internet gave away her location to the FBI who managed to track her down 2000 miles away from her home. The Switch gave away the location of the accused and the child was recovered within 11 days of her going missing.
“She went through a lot in those few days,” said search volunteer Keitra Coleman.
“It’s probably nothing that anybody even had thought of at this point,“ said retired Arizona DPS Director Frank Milstead. “The fact that somebody else down the road — another child — was bright enough to go, ‘Hey, look, my friend is online, and she’s been missing, and I need to tell somebody.’”
This incident alone shows us both ends of the spectrum for the good and the bad side of technology. On the bright side, we saw how a Switch gave away the location of the missing child that helped authorities locate her while on the other hand, unsupervised use of the same technology led her into the trap in the first place.
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