Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing (2025) s01e02 Episode Script

1
What's up? It's your boy, Raegan.
I'm gonna make a YouTube
video right now 'cause I'm bored.
This might be, like, acting on impulse,
but I think this is a good decision.
[gentle music playing]
I've always naturally loved the idea
of being able to kind of put yourself
out there for everybody to see.
I think that I've just naturally
loved being able to have something
that I'm like, "Oh yeah. Here's
me. Look at what I'm doing."
I've always posted things about myself.
Just kind of open diary with my transition
and just growing up and
music and everything.
I know it looks like I'm
12, but I promise I'm 16.
I met Piper and Tiffany through
Matt Dugan, my manager.
It was very normal for you to kind
of just be put in somebody's face,
and, "Hey, they make content.
Make content with them."
When I first met Tiffany, she was
a very laid-back, fun, chill mom.
There was multiple things
dealing with my transition
that she was very curious of.
"When are you gonna get the
surgery? You gonna get surgery?"
Just multiple questions about
my transitioning and my body
that were very hinted at being, like,
just sexual, a little inappropriate.
[disquieting music playing]
One night, we went to Tiffany's house,
I think, to do content all together.
Tiffany provided the alcohol.
We were in her house. I
believe she took it out her cabinet.
We were on my live stream.
We were just sipping, reading
comments, having a good time.
Mm, I I definitely get drunk.
Tiffany's drunk.
And it got to a point
where Tiffany was like,
"I wanna come be involved.
Let me be in the stream."
And she, like, sat on the couch with us.
And we're just, like, all
on the edge of this couch.
I remember it starting with
just hand on the shoulder,
you know, then both
hands, massaging my back,
like, oh, rubbing my arm.
Just a lot of touching up here.
Pulling on my shirt
and pulling on my collar,
and and saying that I was
sexy, saying that I was hot.
That's when Piper started getting
a little like, "Okay, Mom, stop."
"You're being weird."
Then the kiss happened.
- [dramatic sting]
- [high-pitched ringing]
And I was 17 years old when this happened.
I remember laughing and then being like,
"I think we should end the stream."
And just ending it very
quickly after the second kiss.
I definitely was very
realistic in that point
of like, "I know that this is wrong."
Of course, we go on Instagram, on
social media. It's everywhere already.
There was definite
NO's from my supporters.
They were like, "This boy is 17."
You know, "She's going to jail."
I remember it was, like,
a hard time going to bed.
I was very anxious, had a lot of
anxiety, thought that I ruined my career.
And, like, I woke up in the
morning, and it was gone.
Everything.
You couldn't find any clips of us kissing.
You couldn't find any
recordings of the stream.
[mouse clicks]
It was just all gone off social media.
Not on YouTube, not on Instagram.
Like, "What's going on?"
I didn't go to the police
because I think that I
was just very scared
of the status of us being in the industry
and the fact that either
I was gonna have this
above my head in my career,
or I was gonna ruin Piper's career.
[disquieting music continues]
And then I never talked
with her after that, really.
But I also remember thinking,
"If someone could erase
this from the Internet,
then what else could they get away with?"
[tense, foreboding music playing]
[music rises, fades]
[intriguing electronic music playing]
[bubbling]
[rising whir]
- [music abates]
- [ethereal whirring]
[upbeat rhythmic music playing]
Hey! What is up, guys?
Welcome back to my channel.
So, today, I have a
very exciting challenge.
But before I tell you, I
brought my best friend, Piper!
You didn't bring me. I live here.
Oh, true. Well
[Brandon] The way that Tiffany
Smith was able to build this brand
and then utilize the momentum
to then launch The Squad,
strategically, it was brilliant.
[Taylor] She starts earning tons of money.
At her peak, she was earning between
$300,000 and $500,000 a month.
Seemingly, the possibilities were endless.
I mean, she was destined for
millions and millions of dollars.
Come in like this, just chilling and
playing, and be like, "Shalom, guys."
And the way that she's able to take people
and get them to do all
these moving parts for her,
you know, she's a conductor
of you know, this business.
All right, in editing, I would
just do sleeping music,
like lullaby music for babies.
[Sophie] Hunter made it
seem like he was one of us.
Like, he was the cool, fun guy. You
could come to him about anything.
[Hunter] Up here, Sophie.
Why do you have a hand here?
Up here, both fingers.
[Claire] He was the cameraman.
He would help us block the scenes
of what we were gonna
do, where we had to stand.
But Hunter was kind of the person
who just put the action towards her
ideas and what she wanted us to do.
[Ashley] Tiffany was the mastermind.
And when I say "mastermind," I
mean, you can look at all the videos.
They're copycat videos of other creators.
[Hunter] You're gonna
hide one M&M in here.
She was ripping off whatever was trending.
And at the time, it was crushes.
- [music fades]
- [text message chimes]
Sorry, man. I don't think I can
make it today. I got other plans.
What? With who?
- [text message chimes]
- Piper.
[upbeat music playing]
[Steevy] Crush content is when you
put a boy and a girl together on YouTube.
They either like each other, or
they pretend to like each other.
And for some reason, it resonates so well.
[kids chanting] Kiss! Kiss!
Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!
"Shipping" is the slang term
for a manifested relationship
between content creators or stars online.
It's incredibly popular
because it's viral content
that elicits a strong reaction,
so it gets lots of views and shares.
And kids like to watch it.
Kids like to see other
kids be surprised or scared
or have these deep emotions.
Guys, this is my first
kiss. I am so nervous.
Comment below if you've
had your first kiss yet,
or if you want, or if you don't want it.
I'm freaking out.
[Ashley] Tiffany saw
that these little kids
can draw views and money,
so Tiffany pulled Gavin
in to be Piper's ship.
And that was Pavin.
[Angela] Tiffany decided
Sawyer needed a ship,
so Tiffany chose Indi Star
to come into The Squad
to be a crush for Sawyer.
Their ship was called Sindi.
[drumroll]
- [hearts pop]
- [all] Oh!
[Sawyer] The first ship
with Indi was presented as,
"Look, this is this great opportunity."
"These crush videos are doing so well."
"The fans are gonna love it.
You're gonna grow so much."
So Tiffany would kind of come
up with the idea of what to do,
and Hunter would tell you to do
it, you know, 'cause he was filming.
Today's YouTube video is
actually gonna be super awesome
- Yeah!
- because we might get to kiss.
It's just really awkward and
embarrassing, you know?
And I didn't like her at the time.
You know what that means.
Whether she liked me or not,
I'm sure it was awful
for her too, you know?
- And yes! Kiss!
- [Indi gasps]
[Angela] In the early days, I thought,
"That's weird. We shouldn't
do that. They're too young."
But then we learned quickly and saw
that when you have the
word "crush" in the title,
the video is gonna do a ton better.
It didn't seem so crazy
after watching them do it.
- [Tiffany] They look so awkward.
- [Hunter] It's awkward. [chuckles]
[Karen] These kids who are
pushed into acting older than they are,
even if it's just crushes,
dating, making out, whatever it is,
it violates their innocence on that side,
and it's hard to get them
back to where they need to be
in their regular daily lives.
It's like they're stuck
between two worlds.
And they don't know which
one's right or which one's normal.
- I love--
- [Frank] Do you like when I lick your ear?
- Yes.
- [Frank] Does that distract you?
Frank, if you throw me off,
this is gonna be your fault.
[Sophie] Tiffany really liked Gavin.
Like, she would make inside
jokes towards him, which were odd.
[Tiffany as Frank] Hey, Gavin!
Can you pass me deez nuts?
Ha! Got him!
We would all kind of laugh and act
like we knew what she was going with,
but it was really odd
'cause she's an adult.
[intriguing electronic music playing]
[Brandon] I was involved in
developing one of The Squad kid's brand
before they'd actually joined The Squad.
I was there in the very early days.
So the moment that changed
my perspective on Tiffany Smith
was the consecutive calls I was
receiving from parents in The Squad
about the pressures
that they were being given
to wear certain clothing,
to do certain things on set,
to work a certain amount of hours.
Seriously, guys, this sucks. I
don't want to be here anymore.
I don't know how I'm gonna eat.
[Brandon] As more and more
information started to unravel,
I realized how dark
of a place it had gone.
[keyboard clacking]
[Gavin] No, I did not break up with Piper.
No one broke up with anyone.
It was my parents who pulled
me out of a toxic environment,
which I'm super glad they did.
[Claire] Nothing was really
talked about whenever Gavin left.
It was just kind of like he
dropped off the face of the earth,
and just no one talked about it.
Shalom, guys! I hope your
day has been better watching--
Walker, it's my intro. Find another one.
Oh yeah, I guess so.
I have to make my own intro 'cause
now I have a YouTube channel.
[mellow guitar music playing]
[woman] Walker started off
mostly booking commercials,
doing short films, doing episodes on TV.
And the feature film world is
kind of the path we were on.
- [beeps]
- And then I got a DM on Instagram.
And it was from Piper Rockelle's account.
Something about, "Hey, we're
looking for kids to film with."
"Would you ever be
interested in doing YouTube?"
[Heather] Piper and
Gavin, they had broken up.
And all of a sudden,
she needed a new crush.
And so Tiffany did a casting.
And all these boys submitted photos.
Her having a boyfriend
was really important
for the views on YouTube.
[Sophie] You kind of see it too.
Like, if somebody leaves The
Squad, they just hire the next person
who somewhat looks like
them and can play that part.
[Jenn] Walker and Piper became "Piker."
- [hearts pop]
- So that was their ship name.
It was all new to me.
[Tiffany as Frank] Hi!
[Hunter] We have Hayden. We have Walker.
-Sup?
- [Hunter] We have Lev.
And we have Jentzen.
[tender music playing]
[Sophie] My ship name was
"Jophie," Jentzen and Sophie.
He actually liked me at a certain point.
I really liked him at a certain point.
So our crush ship became real,
but it did start off as an audition.
- Put it down!
- No!
- Put it down! No, no!
- I'm opening it.
[woman 1] Jentzen joined
The Squad in July of 2019.
Sophie was smitten with
Jentzen from the first audition.
I need more hair ties. I I like
[Johna] Tiffany had a lot
of enthusiasm about him
and pairing up Sophie
and Jentzen together.
- Ow! Now I gotta get you back.
- No, no!
[Johna] My first impressions of
Tiffany, she seemed very nice.
She was generous.
We actually had a problem
with our cat at that time,
and she was a major cat lover.
She donated $1,000 to our cat's surgery.
So we were like, "Wow." You
know, "She's a really nice woman."
So I have my crush, Sophie!
[Johna] The first videos were fine.
There wasn't anything alarming about them.
- Why'd you tackle me?
- [Sophie] 'Cause I missed you.
Yes, I missed you too. Okay.
[Johna] I thought, "Okay, you
know, an on-camera relationship."
And the fans loved it.
[comment plonks]
But then later on, the content started
really escalating to being inappropriate.
[soft, disquieting music playing]
[emotional] Jentzen, I really
don't think it's the time right now.
- [Jentzen] Sophie
- No, please.
I just really wanna
be left alone right now.
[Sophie] Tiffany would
direct us to pose certain ways,
to be hugging a certain way in a clip
to get these clicks
and to get these likes.
And off-camera, it was even more sexual.
Like, she was asking us
when we were gonna do more than kissing.
And that really threw Jentzen and I off.
Because I was 12, and he was 13, 14.
We don't want to be doing these things
that you're telling us to, and it's weird.
[Tiffany] Smile. Look You
can kind of say "hi" to the camera.
Flirt with the camera.
[woman 2] You know, I remember
seeing these kids getting married.
And, you know, after the fact,
seeing that it was, you
know, a publicity stunt.
But it's their real lives.
And they're supposed to know
how to act in these situations.
And they haven't lived the life to
even understand what that means.
At about 12 was when I got
some sort of Instagram presence.
I auditioned for Dance Moms.
The show aired, and overnight,
I got like 100,000 followers.
[whizzing]
When you have an amplified audience,
it is really, really hard to distinguish
what relationships are real,
what friendships are real,
and what your true
self actually looks like.
[faint chatter, laughter]
[Ava] And I wasn't
what these kids are now.
And I can't even imagine the pressures
that they felt to put out a persona
that isn't them.
Things can get very muddy when
kids are making a lot of money,
like an obscene amount of money.
What's up, guys? I'm Jentzen Ramirez.
And welcome to my YouTube channel.
Don't forget to like, subscribe,
and turn on those post notifications.
[electronic rock music playing]
[Johna] When we posted our first video,
he got a million views.
And we were just like,
"Wow! This is great."
I didn't realize that
that wasn't the norm.
I think we need to bring in The Squad!
[Sawyer] I was definitely making more
money than any 14-year-old should be.
It reached just over $50,000 per month.
[Taylor] The key to growing
on YouTube is collaboration.
Collab groups like The Squad
exist to sort of co-promote each other.
And so if you can build that cast
of relevant influencers around you,
build them up, and
then they funnel into you,
you can syndicate content,
syndicate brand deals,
and grow the whole pie.
"Guys, you should probably go
check out my Instagram, you know,
and maybe my TikTok."
- Shout out a couple of other things.
- Okay.
[Johna] Because Hunter was giving
you help to get those elevated numbers,
they wanted you to pay 10% of
your child's earnings to Hunter
and sign a contract.
All right, guy
[Johna] And I told my family,
"I don't think it's a good idea
because if we ever want
to separate from them,
you wanna still be able to create content,
and we will be able
to do that on our own."
And I said, "Okay, if we're gonna do
this, gonna start your YouTube channel,
then I'm gonna be filming and editing
and and helping you run your channel."
And this went on for months,
where we were under no contract.
[Brandon] Tiffany and
Hunter take percentages
on all of the kids' channels,
which is normal in situations like these.
However, it's not normal for one mother
of the talent to kind of rule the roost.
[Piper] What? You're gonna
be flirting with my boyfriend?
[Brandon] As The Squad
started really cultivating popularity,
Tiffany wanted more.
And Tiffany decided
who got the brand deal,
where it was placed, who
made the most money,
who needs to hold the product.
[Hunter] Action.
[Brandon] "If I give you this brand deal,
then you need to be sure
you're in these videos."
"If you dress this way,
I'll be sure you're on
Piper's next three thumbnails,
which is gonna drive your
fan base through the roof."
"So wear that bikini."
[intriguing music playing]
[Heather] I was all the kids' stylist.
My day-to-day was going to buy clothes.
I would buy them cute little
tracksuits or matching clothes.
It's like 11, 12 girl clothes.
Tiffany would get so pissed and be like,
"Piper is not Sophie. She's sluttier."
"Get her sluttier clothes.
Get her sluttier clothes."
"She needs to show more."
I was just kind of shocked.
My friend did all the thumbnails.
And he has texts instructing
him to give the girls bigger boobs,
smaller waist, make her butt
bigger, make her thighs bigger,
make the guys' muscles bigger.
Over and over, "Sex sells. Make it sexy."
You know it's not
right, but you're just like,
you can't say anything.
It kind of became
normalized, the weirdness.
Since I already showed
you Light Party Mode
[Karen] A lot of the
really big kid influencers,
when they hit puberty,
those shenanigans and
that pushing of the limits
can become more
provocative or more outrageous
in order to continue to engage and attract
and satisfy their
customers, their audience.
[Taylor] The Internet is so vast.
And when we think of these child
content creators, we often imagine,
"Well, it's just other kids
that are following them."
But it's hard to really
know who these people are.
I think parents kind of
delude themselves about that
because to confront the reality
is to admit that you've put
your children in harm's way.
[birds chirping]
[Ashley] In the very early days,
I saw a video of Piper just
right after her tenth birthday.
Look at all of this stuff!
[Ashley] Surrounding her
were boxes and boxes of gifts.
What?!
[Ashley] I remember seeing a
pink flamingo, stuffed animals,
and a lot of squishies.
All of this stuff was
given to them by a fan.
His name was Megan.
And I said, "Oh, well,
Megan's really nice."
[Sophie] I never got to
see what Megan looked like.
I thought Megan was
a girl fan for a while,
until I found out that he
was, like, an older male.
[Heather] Megan poses as a girl online
who's a Piper Rockelle fan,
has all the pictures of Piper.
[keyboard clacking]
[Heather] Tiffany said,
"He likes pictures of Piper."
"He's her stalker."
"You can get stuff too if
you send him pictures."
"It's nothing bad. It's just extra
pictures from photo shoots."
"But he's a pervert." Like,
she knew he was a pervert.
[keyboard clacking]
Regularly, Tiffany would be like,
"Piper," like, "Megan's on the phone."
And then Piper would go
over and be like, "Hi, Megan!"
[Heather] Just by flirting
and sending him photos,
Tiffany got herself a
Gucci bag from Megan,
Piper got a Gucci bag.
Gotta bring the Gucci bags.
[Heather] All these,
like, outlandish gifts.
[Sophie] Brand-new
computers, brand-new cameras,
camera lenses, mics,
iPhones if she needed an iPhone.
She got hoverboards.
Anything that you could
think of that Piper wanted,
like, she got from Megan.
And then Megan reached out to
Sophie, and I blocked him right away.
Hey, guys, I'm back. It's been
about, like, two days since
Corinne came home and asked me
why old men like to smell underwear.
I [scoffs]
It's one of those things where, again
"Where did you get this?" [scoffs]
[wistful piano music playing]
[Corinne] Piper had acting
lesson, voice lesson, one of those.
After we dropped Piper
off, Tiffany was like,
"I have to go to the post
office and drop off some things."
And she had a bag.
And she pulled out what
looked like Piper's underwear.
And I asked her, like, "Why
are you, like, shipping those out?"
And she told me that old
men like to smell them.
And I was confused.
I was like, "What is she
talking about?" Like
But I confronted Tiffany.
She's like, "Ugh! Stop being so dramatic."
I think the hard part about
other people understanding
why would you stay
in a situation like that
I guess I thought that I
could shield Corinne from that.
Should adults be able to subscribe
to exclusive content of minors?
Because that's what's happening
across various platforms.
[somber music playing]
[woman 1] There was
a stat out of Australia,
60% of images found
on predators' computers
were from social media.
The Wall Street Journal did an article
where it said, you know, "Instagram
fosters a pedophile community."
[sinister music playing]
[woman 2] Our investigation
spent many months
looking at a number of child
safety issues on Meta platforms.
In almost all cases for
young girls on these platforms,
being an influencer means
having very large numbers
of adult men as followers.
[Ava] Girls who are dancers or gymnasts
definitely have this audience
that is there for the wrong reasons.
And I've had situations of
comments and DMs and things
that are creepy and weird.
[overlapping chatter]
[Katherine] On any platform, the
algorithm is meant to assess you as a user
and try to figure out what type of
content you might be interested in.
The dark side of this
is that if you are an adult who
is sexually interested in children,
it will not only help you
find truly illegal material,
but also just general
child-related content.
And the most disturbing
aspect of this investigation for me
was adults who would exchange
photos that were pulled from Instagram
and discussed in ways that
were just absolutely dehumanizing.
[tense, pulsing music playing]
[Sarah] In The New York Times article,
there was a comment
from a predator that was like,
"Thank God for the Instamoms."
"They're just providing
all of this for free,
and we don't even
have to go looking for it."
When you see comments
like that, I just don't know
why parents would
want to participate in that.
- [boy] Dude, look how she looks though.
- [Piper] Walker, you go date Sophie.
- I'm leaving.
- [Walker] All right, maybe I will.
- I can't even. I'm done.
- [Sophie] Piper, chill out.
- We like you a lot.
- [Piper] I don't
[Sophie] I think Piper continued
to film because she has to.
Uh, what if we did like
That's how she's making a
living. And she has no other choice.
And she's talked to her mother before.
Piper's talked to Tiffany,
like, "I don't wanna do this."
And then she just kinda blows it off,
and then they're filming the next day.
[Tiffany] Piper, stop eating
your hands. You look ridiculous.
[Hunter] Two, one, action.
[Jenn] Whenever I showed
any concern for Piper,
Tiffany would say, "Piper knows her job."
"Whatever you need her
to do, just tell her to do it."
[Tiffany] Action, camera one
[Sawyer] I don't know when
the last time Piper went to school
or had genuine friends.
She's pretty trapped in this.
[Heather] I've heard her say
several times she did not wanna film.
She wanted to move back to Georgia.
So I don't even know if
she wanted to ever be in LA.
But then COVID happened in March.
And then we were all trapped in the house.
Well, look who's back.
It's Piper Rockelle!
The Piperazzi is on fire!
I'm actually kind of liking
this quarantine thing,
because I am a homebody,
and I love being at home,
so this is actually a
pretty good thing for me.
[intriguing music playing]
[Taylor] COVID was like pouring gasoline
on the fire of the kidfluencer industry.
You had everyone suddenly
shoved on their phones,
consuming hours and
hours of kidfluencer content.
And it's never come back down.
[Sophie] During COVID is
when I hit a million on YouTube.
And, like, everyone was just popping off
because all these
other kids, our fan base,
they were all at home
just watching YouTube.
That was the only thing you could
do, was watch TV or YouTube.
- [Walker] Yo, Con Man!
- Yo!
- Connor!
- Hey, Connor!
[boy] Yo, what's up?
[woman] When Connor joined
the squad, COVID was full swing.
Then the industry shut down.
And then his series was canceled.
Then his other opportunities that
he had coming up were canceled.
And so that became
his little group of friends.
You know, everybody had
groups they hung around with,
but you didn't hang with other people.
So it didn't seem abnormal
that that's the only people
we were hanging out with.
[Sophie] The hours
became extremely longer.
The videos became longer.
The amount of videos we
were filming became longer.
The workload became
more and more and more,
to the point where it just
became so exhausting.
I don't even have makeup
on in some of the videos
because I was so exhausted,
and I couldn't even get ready.
I just had to be on camera.
[Ashley] We had just moved from
Georgia to Vegas during COVID.
We don't know anybody on the West Coast.
None of the kids are going to school.
And it was so hot here,
no kids go outside in Vegas.
So when everybody was
very isolated during that time,
going to LA was exciting.
[upbeat electronic music playing]
I remember my mom revealing,
like, "We're going to LA to visit Piper."
And me and Claire were like,
"Oh my gosh." We were so happy.
[Tiffany as Frank] Not
another Squad member!
There's too many. Let's
start getting rid of them.
[Hunter] Oh, Frank, this is Claire.
[Claire] When I became a part
of The Squad during COVID,
I was extremely grateful,
because I was hanging
out with a big group of kids
while everyone was isolated at
home, doing school online. [chuckles]
Hey, what is up, my Claire Bears?
Today is going to be another prank video!
Mwah-ha-ha-ha!
[Patience] Claire has always
wanted to do some type of acting.
She was in her school plays and chorus,
so we were like, this is a
great opportunity for her to,
you know, pursue her dreams, and why not?
[Ashley] Because we were so isolated,
it was very, very important
to these kids to hang out
because nobody was going to school.
And they became extremely close.
If somebody was going through
something, they were there for each other.
- [Claire chuckles]
- What?
- What's up, Claire?
- [Claire chuckles]
[Ashley] But Pay's, like, telling
me, sometimes they don't eat lunch,
and Claire was up until one,
two o'clock in the morning.
But there was a bigger,
sort of, play going on here
of, like we're connecting
with Piper and Tiffany.
[Patience] I was excited to be
accepted into Tiffany's life again.
And I worked for free there.
You know, she offered to pay me.
I said, "Until you guys
start making more money,
um, I'll just, you know I'll just do
this 'cause, you know, you're family."
- Hey, guys!
- Hey, guys!
Welcome to my YouTube channel.
[Ashley] I could not believe
that we could go from zero
to 100,000, 200,000,
400,000, 500,000 subscribers
on our YouTube channel.
And when the revenue started
climbing, I couldn't believe it.
We're talking about life-changing money.
You kind of don't
know what to do at first.
Like, "Oh my goodness. Is this real?"
[whizzing]
[clinking]
[Brandon] A lot of these content creators
Let's take Piper Rockelle, for example.
A lot of her engagement on YouTube
and on social media is actually fake.
It's bots.
It's it's paid interest.
[whimsical electronic music playing]
[Taylor] People will
buy millions of followers
from places like Bangladesh or
Pakistan or Eastern European countries
because it's very cheap.
[Brandon] We call it botting
because it is something
everyone in the industry does.
But when you bot a false engagement,
you're not getting paid on those bots.
[coins clinking]
You're only getting paid on real users
that are engaging and are
actually watching through the ads.
You're not getting paid on those first
50,000 views that have been botted.
That's really just an optic play.
It's a little smoke and mirrors,
'cause it draws people in.
But when these kids start to hit
these massive numbers and going viral,
you're gonna need to keep giving
the audience what they wanna see.
- [kids cheering]
- [music abates]
Today's video is going to be
my very first Last To Challenge.
We're gonna be doing
the Last To Challenge.
Last to leave FaceTime.
Last to leave the pool.
The seven-second challenge!
Who can eat the Travis
Scott meal the fastest?
Last to leave the freezing ice tub.
- [kids] Oh!
- [Hayden] Ah!
[kids screaming]
[Karen] You look at a lot of
influencers, there is a pressure
to outdo yourself every day.
And so for the people who are
sort of scripting their pretend lives,
the idea is, how can you get
the audience to keep coming back
to see more and more outrageous behavior?
I'm pretty sure Sawyer has frostbite.
[Sophie] There's so many videos that
just made all of us feel uncomfortable.
- [automated voice] Soy sauce.
- Soy sauce?!
Ow! It's really hot!
[Sophie] It doesn't matter
what happened to us,
as long as they got it on camera.
- [Hunter] Oh.
- Sophie, you got "Kiss the host."
- I'm the host.
- I mean [scoffs]
[Sophie] It starts to really
take a toll on your mental health,
'cause as soon as that camera's
off, I'm depressed and sad.
And it's like one of
some of the hardest years
of my life, and I'm only 12.
[Hunter] If they let it slide
three times, like this third time,
I wanna see a kiss.
- [Tiffany] Hey, Hunter?
- [Hunter] Yes?
- [Tiffany] Are you filming?
- [Hunter] Yeah.
- [Tiffany] Is it Piper and Lev?
- [Hunter] Yes.
[Tiffany] I feel like Piper
and Lev should be like,
"Will you guys, like, make out now?"
[Hunter] Yeah, babe, I already
got it all scripted out and stuff. It's--
[Tiffany] That how it's gonna be?
In the beginning, I don't think there
were too many rules for parents coming,
but as time went on, Tiffany
started getting more strict
and more controlling.
Like, "You can come, but you
can only be in the back house."
We're gonna walk in there
and I guess see what happens.
And maybe we're
gonna kiss. We'll find out.
[Johna] The fact that Tiffany tried to
keep the parents in the back house
while the kids and Tiffany and
Hunter were filming in the main house
was concerning because we
couldn't have eyes on our kid.
There was always some
reason to keep us away.
She would manipulate different
parents against each other.
She did not want any
parents being friends.
There was always one mom
that was in the doghouse.
And then you wouldn't want to
befriend that mom in that time,
or else it might turn on to you.
She gets everybody on her side,
but then pins everybody
against each other.
Without you even
knowing. It's it's incredible.
It was like, you're so
fucked-up and mentally
Like, you're like, brainwashed.
And you're just like, "This seems
right, but it also seems wrong."
Like, little by little, shit got weird.
[huffing through nose]
Sometimes you didn't understand how
she was getting you to do these things.
[Ayden blats]
[Claire] For the "Copy My Crush"
video, it was doing what he was doing,
and then he would try and
do something I couldn't do.
[Hunter] And, Ayden, your
shirt is drenched now, man.
Man [clears throat]
What are you doing?
- [Hunter] What do you mean?
- [Claire] Mm-mm.
- So he took off his shirt.
- [Ayden] Like, I'm kinda just
- Taking off my shirt. [sighs]
- [girls screaming]
[Claire] I barely went
to go touch my shirt,
and I was like, "Oh, you
know, haha," like, "you got me."
And she was like, "No,
like, go to pick up your shirt."
Like, "Pick up your shirt."
- [Ayden] Oh! Ha!
- I think you beat me.
[Hunter yells] Oh!
[Claire] For the thumbnail,
Tiffany wanted to see my bra.
I just followed along
because Tiffany's the adult.
She knows what to do.
[Tiffany] Say, "I didn't feel the first.
Can I get a redo on the first one?"
Okay.
[Karen] When kids are encouraged
to do things that they know are wrong
or know are inappropriate,
and especially if they're asked to do it,
sort of, as a challenge, it confuses them.
Kids understand that
adults are responsible
for the well-being of the children.
When those adults are
involved in interfering
with the predictability of the world,
it can interfere with
the trust that kids have
for the adults in the
world that we live in.
- [all] This is a prank!
- [air horn blares]
[Hunter] Oh my gosh. Listen,
Ruby is actually just one of our
[Sawyer] The pranks were fun to film
when you were the one pranking people.
They were not fun when you
were the one getting pranked.
[sobs] But why are you doing
this? It doesn't even make sense.
- [Hunter] It's just a prank!
- [boys yelling]
And that's kind of the mentality that
they had going into all these videos,
was, "It doesn't matter
as long as it looks good."
"They can shut up and do it."
[Tiffany] Hunter, get over here now.
[Hunter] What?
[tense music playing]
Is she okay? Sawyer, what happened?
[Sawyer] I don't know.
She just, like, fainted.
One of the memorable pranks
was "my friend broke her leg" prank.
- Sawyer, can you call 911?
- [Sawyer] Yeah.
And it was Piper, like,
fake breaking her leg.
And then, like, she got taken off in
an ambulance that we had rented.
That one was really upsetting.
Thinking that your friend just
broke her leg and had a stroke
is not an experience that
anyone should have to go through
for a YouTube video.
[Hunter] All right, Sawyer, when do we
tell everyone that this is just a prank?
- [Sawyer] I think right now.
- Oh gosh. That was so bad.
[Hunter] Right now! And
hug Jenna and Claire.
- Claire has tears in her eyes. Yo
- [somber music playing]
[Sawyer] Eventually,
the lines get very blurred
of what's real and what's a YouTube video.
You never know what's real and what's not.
[music fades]
[indistinct police chatter over radio]
It's like the "getting
arrested by the police" prank.
[cop] How you guys doing?
We received a complaint. Disturbance call.
You guys are filming
here without a permit.
[Johna] The prank was to
have a fake police officer come
and arrest one of The Squad
members, whose name was Lev.
[cop] How are you kids doing today?
Good.
[Sophie] That prank
was one of the real ones.
People weren't informed
that it was a prank.
Parents weren't informed
that it was a prank.
So everyone was kind
of actually freaking out.
- [cop] Is there something wrong?
- No, I just--
[cop] No, I'm talking about
him. Why is he crying?
[Johna] I could see my son
crying his eyes out on set.
And it was very traumatizing.
[cop] Turn around. Face
the wall. Interlock your fingers.
- [indistinct chatter]
- [Piper] Wait. Wait.
[Sawyer] Lev got arrested.
And Jentzen definitely
thought that it was real.
- [Hayden] Officer, what are you doing?
- [Hunter] Guys, chill out.
- Okay, he's just going to--
- [Piper] He didn't do anything wrong.
[sobbing]
- [crying] I can't. I can't. I can't.
- [Piper] No, no, no. Sophie. Sophie.
[Sophie] I felt like I couldn't breathe. I
didn't understand what was happening.
I didn't know if it was a prank, it
was real, or what was going on.
I just saw my friend getting arrested.
- [Jentzen] No! No!
- [siren wailing]
Lev!
[Heather] I actually was the only
person who knew that it was fake.
The moms did not know.
And the way that, I don't know, that
played out was absolutely horrible.
I pranked you guys!
[Hunter] You guys got pranked!
- [Lev laughs] Let's go!
- [Hunter laughing]
[actor] Yeah, I felt bad.
It's always hard when
you're pranking kids,
because you don't know how
emotional they're gonna get.
But I'm like, "Ah, they'll
grow up eventually.
- [chuckles]
- "It's all good."
[Hunter] Poor kid.
Let's go give him a hug.
Let's go give this kid a hug.
Come on, man. I'm sorry.
- [Jentzen chuckles tearfully]
- Is this the hurt man? Aw, little man.
After filming was done,
I approached Tiffany,
and she did not like that
I had a problem with it.
And she began to scream and
yell at me and say things like,
"After all we've done for you.
After all we've done for Jentzen."
[Tiffany] Well, Peggy, no.
Peggy, I don't want her
in The Squad anymore.
- They're done.
- Tiffany, stop.
[Tiffany] You didn't hear
the way she spoke to me!
[Hunter] You didn't give a warning.
- Should we go?
- [Rigo] Yeah, maybe.
[Tiffany] I can't warn her.
She tells her kid everything.
[Johna] When we got home,
I got a phone call threatening
our position in The Squad.
That they just weren't sure if they
really wanted to keep him around.
I was shocked because, you know,
here we had been
going along all this time,
and just like that, you're like,
"You're done with my kid?"
[Jenn] Johna and I formed an alliance.
Anything that we saw or heard,
we would share with each other.
And then I started having
conversations with Walker,
telling him I want to be
done with this whole situation.
And he was so upset.
He's like, "I love it there."
"I love making YouTube
videos. This is my friend group."
He did not wanna leave.
And then, one day,
Johna called me and said,
"We are leaving together. Are you in?"
And I'm like, "Well, of course I'm in."
We thought if we left together,
maybe she won't try to tear our kids down.
We brought in Nelson,
which is Jentzen's dad,
um, to kind of be our spokesperson,
because we were all very, very
emotional, and he was very far removed.
You know, he lives out of state.
We thought he could maybe
come in and kind of speak for us,
since we were all very emotional about it.
And then he began to
break off and talk to Tiffany.
And she began to get to him.
And within days, she had changed his mind.
And he decided to let our son Jentzen
stay in The Squad and work with her.
[foreboding music playing]
[Angela] When Walker
left and Jentzen came back,
it was not okay to speak to Johna.
Tiffany very much did
not like Johna Ramirez,
and it was known.
[Hunter] Yeah, there we go.
Oh, look at that. He'll do it for you.
Now that Johna has been banned from set,
Jentzen has to be chaperoned
then by his dad, Nelson.
But unfortunately, Jentzen
had Tiffany in his ear
telling him that his mom
wants all of his money,
she's gonna try to take all
the money, and all these lies.
[Johna] I began to talk
to authorities about it.
And they told me,
as long as one parent tells him he
can go and one parent tells him he can't,
this is an internal family dispute.
There's nothing we can do.
[messages whooshes]
[Heather] Tiffany loves drama.
She got off on fucking with people.
After I got fired from my styling job,
I got to see a lot more.
And her outbursts seemed to get worse.
She just, like, kind
of lost it at that point.
[Sophie] So we had gotten a warning
that Child Protective Services was coming.
Somebody had reported
the things Tiffany was doing,
but we didn't know who it was.
Tiffany pulled Piper and I aside.
She was like, "Sophie, do you want
your best friend's mom to go to jail?"
And I was like
[chuckles nervously] "No."
"You need to do this
correctly, both of you."
"You guys have to say that I am
nothing but nice and nothing but normal."
CPS came.
Piper and I were like, "No,
she's amazing. She's perfect."
And I remember feeling such crap
because I knew it was so not true.
[Heather] But CPS was like, "Oh,
these two kids live in a mansion."
"They're perfectly dressed.
Their house is immaculate."
They could have saved
both of them at that point
had they not been
instructed to tell them bullshit.
My fear was, if we left, Sophie
would never see Piper again.
They would never be friends again.
So
[voice breaks] that
was what kept me there.
Plus, Piper asking me to come in.
And I I just didn't want to leave her.
I felt bad for her.
[somber music playing]
We didn't talk to each other
about everything that was going on
and happening to us
because we didn't know if we were
actually on the same team or not.
And we didn't know if what we said
was gonna get back to Tiffany or not.
[tense music playing]
[Sophie] With Claire, for
instance, I had very big trust issues
'cause she was family.
So I was like, "I can't say
what's happening to me,
and I can't say how I
feel about a situation
'cause she's gonna go telling them."
[Heather] One day, Sophie's
phone got mysteriously stolen,
so Tiffany opened her a new account.
She's reading all of our texts.
- [message whooshes]
- And there's a text in there that said
- [message whooshes]
- "I wish we could adopt Piper and leave."
- [message whooshes]
- And I said, "Me too, kid."
And Tiffany came out screaming,
going off about everything.
And then Sophie lost it. She blew up.
And so Sophie got put on punishment.
For two weeks, she
wasn't allowed to film videos
'cause she needed to apologize to Tiffany.
The only way that she
could be back in The Squad
is if I was to give up parental right.
And I refused.
[tense music builds, fades]
And I said, "Fuck you,
and fuck your squad."
And then we moved out the next week.
[message whooshes]
[disquieting music playing]
When we left, not one of
the kids could talk to Sophie.
She had a boyfriend at the time, Jentzen.
He was never allowed
to speak to her again.
He was forced to block her.
And he never spoke to Sophie again.
Everything got ripped from her.
[Sophie] It hurt a lot 'cause
that was my first boyfriend.
We didn't even officially break up.
I found out when everybody else found out.
Okay, so Elliana just showed
up. And, uh, bro, I'm nervous, dude.
[Sophie] Months later, he started
getting shipped with this other girl.
And I remember being,
like, so heartbroken over it.
And Piper too.
I wanted to be there for her,
and I didn't wanna leave her.
[sobbing] Piper, you are my best
friend in the whole entire world.
And I still think you are.
Whether you think it or not,
you're my best friend, okay?
I am gonna miss you so much.
I begged my mom to go back. "I miss
Piper. I wanna go back. I wanna go back."
She was like, "We are not going back.
You are not going back to that place. No."
[somber music playing]
[Sawyer] Not only was
Sophie Piper's best friend,
I was pretty close to
her as well, you know?
It hurts to have to cut someone
off that was so close to you
because of an adult
that's controlling you.
[message whooshes]
[Claire] Piper had some
days where she would just cry.
She never told anybody why she was crying.
And she and Tiffany would go on a drive.
And we never knew what
they did or where they went.
I remember she came back, and
she went right upstairs to her room.
[music fades]
Living like Mr. Beast for 24 hours!
We have Emily!
-So what are we doing?
- So today
Maybe a month or so after I had
gotten my million-subscriber plaque,
I started to realize, like,
"What am I doing here?"
I'm not even making the ideas, you know?
I'm just being told
what to do and doing it.
You know, it starts
to lose all of its joy.
So, guys, a lot of the rumors are true.
Yes, I did leave Piper Rockelle's Squad.
- [gasps effect]
- But no hate to anyone.
We're all on good terms for now.
Um, we'll see how things go, but
It was definitely stressful
when I left at first.
You start to realize
that you're gonna lose
all the views that you're getting,
everything that you're making.
You're gonna lose your friends, the
people you hang out with every day.
It definitely keeps you
there as long as it can.
[Hunter] Look, guys, I'm not gonna lie.
The pace we're at right now,
we're gonna miss the sunset.
I know. I think we are
My breaking point
was the first time that
I stood up to Tiffany.
And I saw how she handled it.
And I just knew that I
couldn't take it anymore.
I didn't really know Tiffany until
after we moved to Las Vegas.
And I knew what Patience
had told me previously,
but I hadn't seen that behavior exhibited.
[messages whooshes]
[foreboding music playing]
And I finally saw it firsthand.
Tiffany screaming at Claire and Elliana
for something that Claire had
done to protect someone else.
[Hunter] disrespect
Jentzen, otherwise, like I said--
[Tiffany] I am done. And Elliana, I know
you're hearing this. You keep up with--
You owe me a fucking apology, Elliana,
because you are a
disrespectful little bitch.
After she saw that, she
was like, "Mm-mm. Nope."
"She's not gonna talk to my kid that way."
And that was that.
[tense music playing]
[Ashley] The morning that we left,
we didn't show up for the
filming of the first video.
I got a voicemail from Hunter.
[beep]
Okay, Ashley, um, so I'm confused.
I don't know what's going on here.
I've been very transparent
and clear the entire time.
Now, all of a sudden, everyone
that I trusted and cared about
and, honestly, loved more than anything,
more than anything, you would know this,
have literally turned and
stabbed me in the back
[Ashley] But I feel like he
knew why we were leaving,
but he was gonna
have to deal with Tiffany.
And his voicemail was very frantic.
[Hunter] My feelings are
hurt. No one said anything.
I just woke up one day, and
boom, half my shit's gone.
Half of the kids that I, I'm gonna
say, raised in the social media world
and cared about and
loved more than anything,
because I don't have
anything, just fucking quit on me.
Like, can you call me?
[tense music continues]
[Claire] I didn't even get
to say goodbye to Piper.
I didn't even get to explain to her,
"I'm not leaving you just
because I'm leaving you."
That was my biggest thing, was
not being there for Piper anymore.
No, yeah. I I just wanna make, like
[Heather] I felt bad for Piper.
[somber music playing]
[tearfully] I always wonder,
like, how is she? [sniffles]
[voice breaking] 'Cause we left
her there with a fucking monster.
- [sniffles]
- [music fades]
And she was my little buddy.
And, like [sighs] hopefully,
when she gets older, she'll realize.
Maybe one day, her and
Soph could reconnect.
But I hope she's good.
[sniffles]
[poignant piano music playing]
I'm, like, a mess.
Hey, guys.
- We just made a gingerbread house.
- We made gingerbread houses.
[indistinct chatter over cell phone]
[Ashley] Claire used to talk and
argue and, you know, normal kid things.
[Claire] No, like actually.
We're, like, not joking.
[Ashley] But when she got home
and didn't come out of her room
[Claire] It's cute though.
[inhales]
it's like she went mute.
Guys, today we are doing "Who
Knows Their Crush The Best."
- [over phone] Wow!
- [Amber] My kid hates social media.
My kid doesn't ever wanna
do anything like that again.
So now that we're done with round one
[Amber] He's recently
said he wants to stop acting.
It makes me sad.
It makes me sad.
[poignant music continues]
[Johna] I couldn't protect Jentzen
from what was going on in The Squad.
And I couldn't get him out.
So I ended up filing for divorce
so I could get legal custody
of my son and protect him.
That was my thought process.
Tiffany was telling Jentzen,
"You need to emancipate."
That's where it started.
By the end of 2020, Jentzen
wouldn't really speak to me.
He wouldn't answer his phone
calls. He wouldn't answer his texts.
At one point, he told me Tiffany
was a better mom than me.
[sniffles]
[Hunter] Tiff, get in there. Get in.
- And watch this. Yeah!
- [kids cheering]
[Jenn] If you met Tiffany Smith today,
you would be like, "She is the
nicest, funniest, like, sweetest person."
I have so many fun memories with her.
It was all a facade.
Corinne's going home to Georgia.
I might be back there pretty
soon, but she's going home
[Steevy] You know, you
leave. It's great. We're gone.
We don't have to deal with that. We
don't have to put our energy into that.
But kids, year after year,
are being put through this.
And then to hear from other kids,
"Yeah, this happened to me.
Yeah, this story happened to me."
And nobody ever does anything about it.
Most people and parents just
protect their kid and take them out.
Okay, so I'm feeling
just a tiny bit nervous.
Uh, I'm gonna be
[Angela] Everyone
is afraid of retaliation.
Everyone is afraid of what she'll
do, not only to their kid, but personally.
I was scared. I got security
cameras put around my house.
[chatter, squealing on video]
[Johna] There was one point I felt like
she was really sending me a message.
She made a trip to Austin.
And there's a video of them
filming in my home in Austin.
And they go through
my entire house in Austin,
talking about everything in my
house and all my family photos.
[Hunter] Tiff, here we come!
Tiffany!
Oh, hi.
[Johna] And she's sitting
in my dining room table.
[tense, unsettling music playing]
And the message was,
"Now I'm in your house."
[music intensifies]
[Jenn] There is no strategy of
having a nice goodbye with Tiffany
because she's gonna take it all back
and put you down to nothing, if she can.
[tense music continues]
No one's gonna take anything away
from the Piper Rockelle kingdom and leave.
We all had a massive sense of relief
not going back to that house to film.
But we all knew the
the wrath was coming.
And when it did, it was
it was really bad.
[glitch crackles]
[ominous music playing]
- [rising whir]
- [music intensifies]
[high-pitched ringing]
[music fades]
[gentle music playing]
[music fades]