5 Things To Know About ‘Undercover Underage’ Star Roo Powell

From the outside, it looks like a quiet Connecticut home, but the inside is home base for Roo Powell’s organization dedicated to catching child sexual predators.

Roo Powell

Child advocate Roo Powell

Photo by: Discovery, Inc.

Discovery, Inc.

Roo Powell is an adult woman who transforms into underage girls to engage with child predators and protect the most vulnerable. Here's what you need to know about Powell and her work:

Powell is not a cop

Roo Powell is a writer whose work has appeared on packaging for major brands like Barnes & Noble, Target, and Nordstrom. She’s also been a ghostwriter and researcher. After an article about her work to identify child predators went viral, she realized there was a huge need to spread the word about how online child predators groom children via social media. Powell and her team, while not officers themselves, regularly consult law enforcement to ensure that they are not entrapping alleged predators and that evidence they gather is admissible in court.

Powell formed her own organization to combat online sexual abuse

SOSA (Safe from Online Sexual Abuse) exists to educate children, parents, teachers, and caregivers about the tactics and pervasiveness of online predators who work to gain the trust of children before beginning to abuse them. In addition to partnering with schools to keep kids safe, SOSA also supports a company that helps social media platforms identify harmful language before a child can be harmed. Advocacy and support for other children’s safety organizations is also a large part of SOSA’s work.

The underage personas aren’t real, but they are very believable

Powell and her team have crafted what they call “personas” for a handful of underage girls, and each girl has an entire life and online presence curated into a believable story for when would-be abusers start asking questions about their lives. Powell’s team rents a house where each bedroom is decorated differently so the setting is right when she video chats with an adult who is attempting to contact a minor. Powell’s appearance is also altered. She utilizes wigs and makeup to disguise herself. Photos of Powell’s face for the various social media profiles are edited so she appears to be a young teen.

The alleged predators aren’t the only ones with pseudonyms, and it takes extensive research to identify them

Powell’s team works to identify the alleged predators so their identities can be turned over to law enforcement. Some of the alleged predators also create pseudonyms and personas so their actual identities can’t be traced. Others give hints about their identities when they talk about their careers and places they like to go. Powell’s team attempts to connect the dots to positively identify the alleged predators, and Powell attempts to get information by asking innocent questions while chatting with the men.

Would-be predators have been arrested because of Powell’s work

In a case featured in episode four of the first season, a former cop named Cullen Jones was busted after connecting with a girl on Instagram who he thought was a high school sophomore. Quickly, his messages went from expressing friendship to lewd. He even said he wanted to help the teen become emancipated from her parents so they could marry. That teenage girl was actually Powell backed by a team of trackers. They were able to gather clues that led them to Jones’s true identity and the revelation that he was out on bond for soliciting sexual conduct with a minor. Roo and team shared their information with the police in Oklahoma which led to a 10 year sentence rather than the originally expected time of probation or 1-2 years.

How do Powell and her team manage to make it all work? Watch Undercover Underage streaming now on discovery+ and airing Mondays at 9/8c on ID.

Next Up

Was Natalia Grace A 6-Year-Old Girl Or Adult Woman When An Indiana Couple Adopted Her?

“I want the puzzle to be complete,” says the Ukrainian orphan of sharing her side of the story for the first time.

10 Revelations From ‘The Curious Case Of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks’

For the first time, Natalia Grace Barnett reveals shocking details about her life and confronts her adoptive father in person.

From Subway Spokesperson To Pop-Culture Pariah: Inside The Fall Of Jared Fogle

The pitchman pleaded guilty to charges related to child pornography and was sentenced to serve over 15 years in a federal prison.

ID's 'Quiet On Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV' Exposes Toxic Working Environment on Dan Schneider's Popular Teen TV Series

The four-part docuseries will premiere across two nights on ID from 9PM-11PM ET/PT on Sunday, March 17 and Monday, March 18.

Inside One Florida Mother’s Brave Yearslong Quest To Expose Subway Spokesperson Jared Fogle

“I need to help save these children, and I would do it all over again,” Rochelle Herman says of the disgraced celebrity’s 14 victims.

5 Things To Know About The Natalia Grace Barnett Case

Michael and Kristine Barnett claim their adopted daughter who had severe dwarfism was actually an adult — and not a little girl, like birth records showed.

ID's New Docuseries Reveals The Untold Story Behind The Fall Of Subway Spokesman Jared Fogle

All three parts of 'Jared From Subway: Catching A Monster' premiere back to back starting Monday, March 6 at 9/8c on ID.

ID Sets Premiere Date & Debuts Trailer For 'The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks'

The six-part docuseries is set to premiere across three nights beginning January 1st at 9/8c on ID.

Death Row Inmate Claimed Cannibalistic Fantasies Caused Him To Kidnap, Kill Neighbor Girl

Police in Oklahoma found 10-year-old Jamie Rose Bolin dead in a plastic bin in Kevin Ray Underwood’s bedroom.