Monroe County man uses Roblox, Discord and Snapchat to sexually exploit children

MONROE COUNTY, Michigan. – A Monroe County man was arrested for allegedly sexually exploiting multiple children online.

Sean Antony Stark, of Erie, was arrested for allegedly coercing minors and telling them to send him sexually explicit photos of himself.

The FBI filed a criminal complaint on November 14, 2024, alleging that Stark used various accounts through Roblox to tell children to talk to him on Discord and Snapchat, and sexually exploited them from January 2023 to August 2024.

Anonymous tip led to investigation

On August 11, 2024, the FBI began investigating after receiving an anonymous tip that a Roblox user was forcing minors on the platform to go to other accounts, such as Discord, to get minors to send him nude images of themselves.

On August 14, 2024, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) notified the FBI that two related tips had been found regarding the use of a username similar to the initial anonymous tip. Both leads stemmed from Roblox accounts with similar usernames providing the username jakebarns6399 on “Snappy,” which the FBI believes to be Snapchat. Usernames were linked to the same IP address.

All 18 reports submitted to NCMEC contained similar accounts of coercion and seduction of children on the platform. All clues showed that users of various accounts were talking sexually to children, encouraging them to continue the conversation and receive sexual images of children by going to other platforms such as Discord and Snapchat.

Roblox and Snapchat provide information to FBI in investigation

In one of the reports, one of the accounts had a promotional post providing an additional Roblox account and a Snapchat account on their account. Roblox says about user-made groups, “Add to snappy (username) to be a couple!! Girls only!! We can trade if you want but it’s not necessary, we can just chat if you want!!!!”

Roblox also provided subscriber information associated with various accounts and their variants, including the username specified in the account’s announcement. Most of the accounts were recently logged in from the IP address found following the anonymous tip.

Snap provided subscriber information for Snapchat usernames found during the investigation on September 18, 2024. These accounts were also found under the same IP address as the Roblox accounts.

Police trace IP address

Law enforcement searched for the IP address and found it in Erie.

On October 8, 2024, an arrest warrant was issued in the Eastern District of Michigan and served on Snapchat. There, they found that the user referenced Roblox and Discord accounts mentioned in NCMEC’s ​​various tips.

Based on multiple conversations, the FBI said Stark was aware of how young the victims were, some as young as 10 and 12 years old.

Police also found that the user in the photo on the Snapchat account matched Stark’s driver’s license and learned that Stark had allegedly been caring for a 10-year-old child since 2023.

Stark arrested, interrogated

On November 13, 2024, law enforcement obtained and executed search warrants.

Stark waived his Miranda rights and police began searching his home. Police found an iPhone 14 there.

Stark initially gave police a different Snapchat username than the one mentioned in the tips, but admitted to using other accounts.

He told police he used Roblox to talk sexually to others, some of whom he allegedly knew were children. Roblox couldn’t receive or send images, so he moderated conversations primarily through Discord.

Stark said he used various Discord accounts to send nude images of himself and received nude images of other users, including people he knew were underage.

He told the FBI he had sexual intercourse with more than 100 people but could not remember how many of them were children. He said he talked to men and women and asked for sexually explicit images, which he would send in return.

Stark faces federal charges

Stark faces the following charges:

• Sexual Abuse Against Children

• Receiving Child Pornography

• Possession of Child Pornography

• Coercion and Seduction of a Minor