- Wow!
Wow.
So you guys are so into yourselves.
You are so committed to censoring innocent people.
- [Narrator] Do you really know who you're following online?
The internet connects fans with their favorite stars,
offering us a glimpse into their seemingly perfect lives.
But this illusion of friendship can blur the line
between performer and predator.
Some of the biggest social media celebs
are using their platforms to gaslight
and groom underage fans.
We only see what influencers want to show us,
but what's hiding beneath the mask?
(suspenseful music)
(upbeat music)
(pensive music)
The internet is an amazing place for us
to explore our interests and connect with the larger world,
but some social media stars are making it unsafe.
- Things have changed a lot culturally
in terms of what we look at as inappropriate
from the perspective of someone who's in power.
There is such thing as an abuse of power
between a famous entertainer and their young fan base
who oftentimes have a really strong sense
of desire to make this person happy
regardless of what it takes.
- [Narrator] Fandom is not a new phenomenon,
but we've come a long way since boomers and Beatlemania
and so has our understanding of celebrity.
Today's celebrities have a direct connection to an obsessive
and often underage audience, and as their influence grows,
so do the profits of the platforms that host them.
In 2019, YouTube brought in a whopping 15 billion
in advertising revenue.
8.5 billion of that went to creators,
much of which is allocated to the top 1% of channels.
The biggest influencers wield an enormous amount of power
over their fans, and where power imbalances exist,
they can be exploited, especially when all it takes
is a simple slide into the DMs.
(suspenseful music)
- Online celebrities weren't really considered
real celebrities, but we're really starting
to accept those people more as people
who have real influence.
- [Narrator] "Onision: In Real Life" showed us how,
even in the early days, some of the very first e-celebs
allegedly used their influence to exploit their fans.
- I allegedly groomed an underage person.
That's not a thing.
Grooming isn't telling someone their a C-U-N-T.
That's not a thing.
That's like brushing your hair
with razorblades and lemon juice.
That's not.
Mm-mm, nobody's getting groomed that way.
- Onision had this cycle of social grooming.
His most famous accuser, while she was still underage,
she became very close with him,
and then once she turned 18, the allegation goes on
to say that he ended up sleeping with her.
That situation was legal,
but the idea of grooming is that he was exploiting
the relationship with Sarah that he had developed
while she was still underage.
- Well, what hurt me a lot is having to watch him say,
"Oh, we don't even hug Sarah.
"We don't even do this or that."
And it's like I'm sitting there, 16, watching this,
and I'm just like, "But yes, you do.
You're sitting here, and you're blatantly lying,
and I can't say anything
because I don't wanna get you in trouble."
- [Narrator] Sarah recently shared her story
on the latest episode of "Onision: In Real Life,"
streaming now on Discovery plus.
After years of holding back
and fear of the YouTuber's toxic fan base,
she finally felt empowered to speak her truth
in hopes that it will help other fans
understand the risks involved in social media fandom,
risks like grooming.
Grooming is an old tactic given new power
by the rise of social media.
- The definition of grooming traditionally is the idea
that an adult or a person who's older
than the subject being groomed is using their relationship
and then later on exploiting that relationship.
- [Narrator] Kids don't understand that age, wealth,
and celebrity create an inherent imbalance of power.
- Young people are pretty naive.
We do not put enough safeguards on the internet
to tell them what they should and shouldn't do.
They can become entrapped
into some sort of a social grooming scheme.
- It often feels exactly like a real relationship
that you'd form with someone IRL.
These relationships only go one way.
So even when the online personality is commenting,
it's a very shallow interaction
in order to take up as little time as possible.
- [Narrator] 46% of kids aged 10 through 17 have admitted
to giving their personal information
to a stranger they met online.
And as more kids grow up with a smartphone
in their hands, those numbers are only going to increase.
- YouTubers share personal stories,
sometimes intimate details of their lives,
and you feel there's more intimacy.
- If you know someone watches you and enjoys you
and they approach you through that proxy,
it borders on the line of unethical
to be romantically involved with them.
- [Narrator] Jorge Garay became an overnight sensation
on TikTok, amassing 4.6 million followers
who were captivated by his antics with partner, Benji Krol.
But in August of 2020, the two were rocked
by an anonymous allegation that appeared on Twitter.
The 15-year-old former fan alleged
that Krol and Garay groomed him, manipulated him
and ultimately sent the underaged teen explicit photos.
Both men admitted there was truth to the allegations.
- I got caught up in such a messed up situation
that I never wanted to be part of.
- I knew I could have managed everything better,
and I apologize for that.
It's no one's fault for believing this guy.
I should have addressed the situation better.
- [Narrator] but there were no formal charges,
no lawsuits, no reckonings.
And when Garay returned to social media after a short exile,
it was to 4 million followers.
- I think there's a lot of cases on TikTok in particular
where you have young people who are still older
than a majority of their fan base
having close interpersonal relationships with them.
They follow each other on social media,
and they actually talk to one another.
But when there's an imbalance of power
in terms of someone's influence online,
then a lot of those conversations can become inappropriate
and can come from a place of abuse of power.
- I'm gonna talk about this,
and we can hopefully put this behind us.
- [Narrator] On Twitch, a streamer named Hashinshin
amassed an impressive audience
with his personality and gaming skill.
But when reports of Hashinshin grooming
and exploiting underage girls emerged last year,
the greater Twitch community swiftly moved to condemn him.
- I didn't try and fail to groom anyone.
That would just be called grooming, okay?
That's literally what grooming is.
If you try to groom, your grooming.
- [Narrator] And after an investigation,
he was permanently removed from the platform.
Deplatforming as an imperfect solution
to a much larger problem,
and if we wanna make the internet a better place
for everyone, we need answers now.
- An algorithm or even a human moderator
can only do so much.
- [Narrator] The law doesn't have many tools
to curb online abuse,
thanks to our First Amendment protections.
The legislators have at least tried to take action.
In March of 2020, a bipartisan group
of senators introduced the EARN IT Act,
designed to incentivize social media companies
to clean up their platforms, but the imperfect
and possibly unconstitutional bill failed.
For now, it's up to the platforms to protect kids.
On January 20th, YouTube demonetized Onision's channel
for violating the creator responsibility guidelines
and causing harm to the community,
taking action against one
of their most infamous alleged predators.
- Platforms wait for something bad to happen
until they act.
You inherently always end up waiting
on the most extreme cases to happen.
- [Narrator] They didn't change the rules.
They just decided to enforce them
after nearly a decade of outrageous behavior
and documented abuse.
Unlike deplatforming, Onision will still be able
to post new videos to his legions of subscribers,
but he'll no longer be able
to make money directly from YouTube.
That's little comfort to those
whose lives have been shattered.
- For Onision to be demonetized means YouTube
has had enough of him.
This is pretty much the nuclear option,
short of just banning him completely off the platform.
- When it comes to people who have proven themselves
to take predatory actions online,
I think that there should be steps taken
to remove those people from their ability
to access the internet.
- [Narrator] Are platforms more profitable
with predators than without?
How can we balance freedom and safety online?
There are no easy answers.
The internet has only just begun to grow,
and as we grow as people within it,
it's up to us to shape it
into a safer, better place for everyone.
Until then, we just have to be wary
of certain social media stars
and their extremely bad influence.
(tense music)