Man used ‘Fortnite’ gift cards to bribe children into creating child porn, feds say
Children on the internet were coerced and sexually exploited by an Ohio man for about 15 years, authorities said.
Ty Brandon Roberts, of Huber Heights, began exploiting kids online — and sexually abusing children in person — in 2007, according to a Nov. 8 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio.
His online schemes included bribing children with online gaming gift cards, including ones for “Fortnite,” in exchange for sexually explicit photos and videos, authorities said. He’s also accused of pretending to be a teenage girl online to convince children to send him sexually explicit content of themselves.
Now, the 38-year-old man has been sentenced to 50 years in federal prison, court records show. He pleaded guilty to charges of production of child pornography and coercion and enticement earlier this year.
Roberts’ defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on Nov. 9.
“From California to New York, Texas to Illinois, Washington to Florida, the United Kingdom to Australia, no minors anywhere were safe from Roberts so long as Roberts had access to the Internet,” U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker said in the release. “It stops now in the Southern District of Ohio.
“Roberts was opportunistic; his victims ranged in age from 6 to 17 years old,” Parker continued. “They were white, Black, Hispanic and Native American. They were male and female. In all, FBI agents fully identified 57 minors whom Roberts coerced into producing 502 distinct images and videos of child pornography.”
Authorities said Roberts’ child pornography included 120 other victims in 216 files who have not been identified. His stash of child porn included more than 11,000 images, according to the release.
Roberts is also accused of “hands-on sexual offenses” involving at least three minors.
“For example, between 2007 and 2008, Roberts sexually abused an 11-to-12-year-old boy and took photos of the abuse on a Polaroid camera,” authorities said. “Roberts eventually created digital images of the Polaroids and kept the original Polaroids in his home until law enforcement seized them in 2022.”
Huber Heights is a suburb northeast of Dayton.
If you have experienced sexual assault and need someone to talk to, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline for support at 1-800-656-4673 or visit the hotline's online chatroom.
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