[imagesource: Discovery+]

A 38-year-old Connecticut mother is posing online as a teenager to ensnare and expose paedophiles.

In the new Discovery+ docuseries called Undercover Underage, Roo Powell is leading the charge against online sex predators.

The six-part series aims to show how the mother of three transforms herself into a 15-year-old girl to lure in paedophiles, gathering enough evidence so that local law enforcement can bring them to justice.

Powell is the founder of nonprofit organisation Safe from Online Sex Abuse, which advocates for children’s safety online.

One of the episodes shows Powell posing as Floris, “an emotionally fragile high school student from Stamford”. That’s according to The Daily Beast, which was able to review the series before anyone else.

Powell’s “well-thought-out charade” includes her dressing up as a few different characters, with wigs and make-up tricks to sell the ruse that she is 20 years younger, as she sits in a manufactured room to communicate to these men lurking in online chat forums.

Men quickly show their sexual interest, with some of the messages ranging “from the disgusting to the disgraceful to the outright abominable”:

These men are, of course, happy to lead the charge in that sick regard, meaning that Powell often has to struggle to maintain a brave face while receiving a barrage of dick pics or, worse still, watching them masturbate during video calls.

Powell doesn’t work alone, but with a “Mission: Impossible-style support team” that includes Norwalk Police Department Detective Mark Suda, who pretends to be Powell’s Uber driver when she meets in person with the online contacts.

The show might come across as over the top as it “cornily amps up its drama at every available opportunity,” but the point is driven home when you see the lengths these predators will go to:

“At the same time, the scary pervasiveness of online pedophilic behaviour is hammered home via the revelation that two of the perverts Powell comes into contact with are actually public-school employees.

If that doesn’t turn your stomach, the crass requests she receives certainly will, along with the deviant head games these scumbags try to play with young girls—notably, “white knight” reasoning in which they warn girls about the dangers of meeting strangers online while simultaneously casting themselves as reliable and noble men dedicated to upholding their honour (save for, you know, the statutory rape).”

Give the trailer a watch:

The docuseries is apparently created in the mood of the popular NBC series To Catch a Predator, which ran from 2004 to 2007.

Undercover Underage will debut on Discovery+ on November 2.

[source:thedailybeast]