Mom Of Three, 38, Entraps Pedophiles, Predators By Posing As A Teen Online

A mother of three is battling against pedophiles in her own way as she and her team attempt to collect data on the identities of these predators by pretending to be an underage teenage girl from Connecticut.

Roo Powell, a 38-year-old mother of three, founded the nonprofit organization Safe from Online Sex Abuse (SOSA) as a way of increasing knowledge around the culture of online child sex abuse and exploitation, according to the Daily Beast.

To achieve this goal, she pretends to be a 15-year-old girl online, using a variety of wigs, lighting techniques, and even a staged bedroom made to look like a teenage girl’s room as a way to entrap predators and gain more information about them, the New York Post reported.

Documented on the new Discovery+ docuseries "Undercover Underage," Powell is shown to have a team monitoring her communications, as well as helping sift through different information to give to the police. Norwalk Police Department Detective Mark Suda helps them with the legal side of their actions and acts as a police consultant for the team.

Her gambit requires her to be propositioned by pedophiles online, whose inappropriate behavior ranges from pictures of their genitals to masturbation during calls.

In real-life meet-ups, Detective Suda drives the Uber while Powell’s team makes sure to get photographs of the men and their license plates--any information that could help in identifying and prosecuting the predators.

Powell has said that this endeavor has ramifications on her mental health, especially as she learns just how deeply entrenched some of these men are to children. Two of the predators she caught reportedly work in public schools.

While she admits that the work she does is dangerous, she believes that she is helping make the Internet safer for minors with the tasks that she is doing for the community.

“Online sexual abuse and exploitation can happen quickly and quietly. A minor can be alone in their room and someone can be abusing them via their phone 2,000 miles away,” she said.

“My hope is through broadening awareness with this show, we can prevent sex abuse and exploitation of children online, as well as empower parents and caregivers to be a compassionate support system for kids in their communities.”

"Undercover Underage" will premiere on Nov. 2 on Discovery+.