Modern Family actress Ariel Winter spoke about her experience posing as a 12-year-old girl to catch online s*xual predators.
Ariel, who was a victim of grooming after entering the entertainment industry at a young age, collaborated with the nonprofit SOSA (Safe from Online S*x Ab*se) for an undercover operation.
The operation was featured in the first episode of the docuseries SOSA Undercover, which showed the 27-year-old star pretending to be a 12-year-old to catch a 31-year-old predator in Oklahoma City.
Trigger warning: this article contains mention of grooming and predatory behavior toward children
Actress Ariel Winter helped catch online predators by posing as a 12-year-old girl
Image credits: 20th Century Fox Television
To carry out the operation, she wore a blonde wig with bangs and FaceTimed the predator, whom she called “Daddy,” from a space staged to look like a child’s bedroom.
Speaking with The Daily Mail, Ariel described the experience as “cathartic.”
“It can be scary at times pretending to be 12 and talking to older men, but it’s validating to put away predators that have been harming children,” said the actress, who played Alex Dunphy on the popular sitcom.
Image credits: SOSA Undercover
“Growing up in the entertainment industry, I’ve been the girl we are trying to save,” Ariel added. “It’s vital to me to help protect young women from the experiences I endured in my own life.”
Ariel said she was surprised by how many men were trying to talk to girls aged 12 or 13. “It’s hundreds of thousands of men,” she shared.
Ariel partnered with SOSA, a nonprofit that collaborates with law enforcement in fighting the online grooming of children
Image credits: SOSA Undercover
Most predators look like “the guy next door,” Ariel described, and they’re usually married with children.
“These men also look like normal, nice guys. The men seem nice because they have pets, and they show you pictures of their dogs.
“They talk about their everyday life, and they seem like sweet men. But the truth is they want to spend time with a 12-year-old girl, they ask inappropriate questions and want to know if parents are around.
“One guy was almost 40 years old, and he wanted to take an 11-year-old girl shopping for a new bra. That’s not normal. It’s not good.”
The actress, who was groomed as a child, called the experience both “heartbreaking” and “cathartic”
Image credits: SOSA Undercover
Ariel explained that children are easy prey for these predators because of their innocence. They may talk to them simply because they’re bored or feel lonely.
“They find a male and think that they can connect to them, not realizing they are so much older and are actually predators with bad intentions,” she said.
The Internet facilitates these inappropriate interactions with its secret, direct messaging, and fake names and profile pictures.
“The access predators have to ALL children in this day and age is immeasurable. This issue needs to be brought further into the light and fought with everything we have,” Ariel emphasized.
She wore a wig and FaceTimed a 31-year-old predator from Oklahoma City
Image credits: SOSA Undercover
“These are very real situations, with real men committing very real crimes, being arrested by real law enforcement that we are asked to assist who are with us every step of the way.”
Ariel made her TV debut in a 2002 Cool Whip commercial when she was four. She went on to appear in different shows such as Listen Up, Freddie, Monk, and Bones, before landing the role of Alex Dunphy in the ABC series, which premiered in 2009.
“I am familiar with male predators, because I worked in Hollywood at a young age. I started at age four,” Ariel shared.
Many predators appear normal and friendly, like the “guy next door,” and are often married, Ariel said
Image credits: SOSA Undercover
“I don’t wanna say too much about it, but by the time I was on a laptop and cell phone, I was getting inappropriate messages from older men, and it causes trauma.
“The experiences I had in person and online as a child have affected me so deeply that I’ve had to go to therapy for it. The movie and TV industry is a dark place.
“I was a victim of grooming online and IRL, and CSA,” Ariel wrote under an Instagram video promoting the SOSA series.
“The effects are lifelong and inescapable. This has ALWAYS been a problem, but in the digital age, it is only escalating to more extreme levels and in more manipulative ways.”
Ariel explained that predators exploit children’s loneliness and innocence and use fake names to contact them
Image credits: SOSA Undercover
Though the experience was “heartbreaking,” she also found it “rewarding” to help spare others from the traumatizing feelings she endured as a child.
“I like working with SOSA because it’s women helping women, and I’ll do it as long as I can.”
Image credits: SOSA Undercover
She added that the organization, which works directly with law enforcement, “helps get actual convictions and take these perpetrators off the streets. It is not easy to do this work, but it is so rewarding to know that we’ve helped protect even one child.”
Online grooming often involves adults creating fake profiles and posing as children or teens in order to befriend someone and gain their trust, as per RAINN. This may be the first step towards inappropriate comments or requests, stalking, or harassment.
Image credits: arielwinter
SOSA and other experts recommend talking to kids about red flags and setting internet boundaries
Image credits: arielwinter
In these cases, predators try to gain the trust of a potential victim through gifts, attention, shared “secrets,” and other tactics that make them feel like the relationship is caring and secret.
They often begin by touching the victim in ways that appear harmless, such as hugging, wrestling, and tickling, before escalating their behavior.
If you’ve experienced grooming, the National S*xual Assault Hotline, Crisis Text Line, and National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can connect you with trained counselors who can provide real-time support.
People praised Ariel for taking part in such a meaningful, life-changing initiative
