ID’s “Undercover Underage” Returns for a Second Season with Roo Powell Taking Dangerous Child Predators Off the Streets [VIDEO]

Every day, countless minors are exploited, groomed, and abused in person and online. Enter Roo Powell and her team at the nonprofit SOSA (Safe from Online Sex Abuse), who work in tandem with law enforcement to apprehend child predators by becoming the targets. After a successful first season resulting in four convictions of sexual predators, ID shows SOSA multiplying that number in Season 2 of UNDERCOVER UNDERAGE as the SOSA team relocates to embed with the sheriff’s office in Canadian County, Oklahoma and deploys three new underage decoys.

As the team launches the fictitious online accounts for a 15, 14, and even a 12-year-old persona, it’s a race against the clock to identify the ACMs (adults contacting minors) and build a case against the alleged predators to enable law enforcement to make an arrest before the perpetrators can victimize other children. With 16 arrests featured this season, the pressure is palpable over the course of eight explosive and intense all-new episodes. Season 2 of UNDERCOVER UNDERAGE premieres on Monday, May 1 @ 9/8c on ID, streaming the same day on discovery+.

Returning this season alongside Roo are social media lead Shelby Chikazawa and photographer and visuals lead Matt Monath. New to this season is SOSA’s director of communications, Jordan Pérez, as well as various team members in support roles for research and evidence. The entire team works directly in conjunction with Canadian County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) led by Major Adam Flowers, who oversees its ICAC (Internet Crimes Against Children) Task Force, and Sheriff Chris West. Multiple adult decoys are deployed this season with Roo’s guidance including the 12-year-old “Abby,” 14-year-old “Mackenzie,” and 15-year-old “Skylar.” As these young women engage with the ACMs online via their decoy personas, Roo guides them as they process and absorb the impact of the lewd actions and disturbing words intended for actual minors.

Building off the tremendous work of last season, Roo and the team at SOSA continue to carefully craft back stories, social media profiles and photos to help the fictitious decoys transform into teens and tweens and together they work to engage with the alleged online predators to identify them for law enforcement. Once the ACMs engage with the underage decoys, the team communicates with the ACMs via texts, calls and even distressing video chats to gather pieces of information about their real identities. Every adult that contacts the teenage decoys is distinctly told from the outset that they are speaking to an underage girl and is given the opportunity to cease communication at any point. For those who choose to proceed with explicit exchanges with a supposed minor, the team mobilizes quickly to put a name to the offender. Then, once the team at SOSA has enough information for a positive identification, they turn over their findings to law enforcement to make the arrest and get an alleged predator off the streets.

Follow ID social on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for exclusive videos, articles, and conversations with Roo Powell and the SOSA team. Engage on social using #UndercoverUnderage.

About Roo Powell

Roo Powell is an award-winning writer, child advocate, and founder of SOSA, a nonprofit raising awareness and combating online child sex abuse and exploitation. Her writing and work reflect her passion and advocacy for human rights, covering sex trafficking, poverty, race relations, and child wellness.

She has been featured as a writer, speaker and advocate in/at SXSW, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, FOX News, Good Morning America, CNN Philippines, The Tamron Hall Show, The Independent, Dr. Phil, Nightline, BuzzFeed, NewsNation, The Daily Beast, Huffington Post, Parents, and various other news outlets.

Alongside her day-to-day work at SOSA, Roo serves as an advisor to Spectrum Labs, a venture-backed AI company that keeps over 1 billion+ users safe online through text and audio moderation.

About SOSA

SOSA is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that combats online sex abuse and exploitation in collaboration with, and consultation from, law enforcement. Using a variety of tactics – including studying offenders’ language and stratagem – SOSA identifies pockets of the internet where offenders target minors and reports information to various Internet Crimes Against Children task forces throughout the United States.

SOSA supports abuse survivors, spearheads child abuse prevention initiatives, advocates for better and broader online safety, provides empathy-led education to young people, helps build technology that makes online platforms safer and signal boosts the work of other organizations that strive to make a difference for kids all over the world.