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.
[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]