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Modern Family actress Ariel Winter recently went undercover as part of a "scary" sting operation.
Winter, 27, who played Alex Dunphy on the popular ABC sitcom during its entire run from 2009 to 2020, posted as a preteen girl to help the nonprofit Safe from Online Sex Abuse (SOSA) in its effort to bust a child sexual predator as part of the true crime docuseries SOSA Undercover.
“It’s definitely cathartic to be teaming with SOSA, knowing that I can make a difference,” Winter said during an interview with the Daily Mail.
“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,” she added.
“Growing up in the entertainment industry, I’ve been the girl we are trying to save,” Winter continued. “It’s vital to me to help protect young women from the experiences I endured in my own life.”
Winter wore a blonde wig with bangs and was sitting on a bed in a room staged to look like a child's bedroom while in character during the sting. The actress used a child-like voice while FaceTiming the predator, whom she referred to as "Daddy" during their conversation.
“I was surprised by the volume how many men were out there looking to talk to young girls who were 12 or 13. It’s hundreds of thousands of men,” Winter said.
“These men also look like normal, nice guys — they don’t look like predators,” she added. “They look like the guy next-door, and they’re usually married and have children. 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.”
Winter spoke candidly about her real-life experiences with child sexual abuse when SOSA initially shared a clip in February teasing the release of its premiere episode in March.
“I was a victim of grooming online and IRL, and CSA,” Winter wrote at the time. “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.”
“The access predators have to ALL children in this day and age is immeasurable," she continued. "This issue needs to be brought further into the light and fought with everything we have. 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.”
“SOSA helps get actual convictions and take these perpetrators off the streets,” Winter added. “It is not easy to do this work, but it is so rewarding to know that we’ve helped protect even one child.”