The Age of Influence (2023–…): Season 1, Episode 5 - The Bad Momfluencer - full transcript

- Hey, guys, this video might be

a little scary
for you younger guys.

If you're not sure,
ask an adult.

[static whirs]

[soft music]

♪♪ ♪♪

ZACH:
Social media isn't real life.

We have what we portray to
people in the outside world

versus who we really are.

As a parent, you never know

what's happening
behind closed doors.



This was a nice neighborhood.

You had two-story homes,

lot of families on the block.

Kids seemed to be happy.

CHILD:
Three, two, one, go.

♪♪ ♪♪

ZACH: Fantastic Adventures
was a channel

with nearly
a million subscribers

and videos that have hundreds
of millions of views.

They were essentially
influencers.

That does not happen
by accident whatsoever.

YouTube was a huge part
of this family's life.

- In a community,
you can have influencers.

You can have stars. We don't
know that they're there.



♪♪ ♪♪

It's not like they have a
banner outside of their house.

They actually want to live
in relative anonymity.

When they can curate
their image,

it gives them the ability
to really hide behind it.

ZACH: The prevailing sense
I got was that no one knew

what was going on
inside that house.

KENT: It was
the most horrible things,

the most egregious things
that we've encountered.

She was a monster.

And I wanted her to spend
every waking moment

of every day the rest
of her life behind bars

thinking about what she did
to these children.

MEGAN: Do you think any
of the kids should live there?

CHILD: No. I think they're not
safe there.

[dramatic music]

♪♪ ♪♪

- My name is Zach Crenshaw.

I'm a reporter and anchor

for the ABC 15 station
in Phoenix.

In local news, you never know

what you're gonna get
on a daily basis.

That's kind of the fun of it.

Live in Scottsdale tonight,
Zach Crenshaw,

ABC 15, Arizona.

I'd only been in Phoenix
for less than a year

when I get a tip from a source
about Fantastic Adventures,

the popular YouTube channel
that was filmed

in a nice neighborhood
in a suburb of Phoenix.

[rock music playing on computer]

- Good game.

♪♪ ♪♪

Yes, yes, we won!

- It was a story that would
resonate with our viewers.

- Hey, guys,
thanks for watching.

ZACH: Fantastic Adventures
was massive.

They had nearly
a million subscribers

and hundreds of millions
of views on these videos.

Now, as I was finishing up
my reporting on this story

and getting ready
for the piece to air...

I had my first daughter.

Everything changes
when you become a parent.

Every parent
before they have kids says,

"Oh, well, I'm not gonna let
my kids watch YouTube."

But in reality,
it's a modern-day pacifier.

YouTube is

a multibillion-dollar-a-year
industry.

There are tons
of content creators

essentially working
full-time jobs,

churning out content that
lives on sites like YouTube.

RYAN:
Welcome to Ryan's toy video.

- Fantastic Adventures

was far from the only
family channel out there.

There are many lucrative
channels on YouTube

with millions of views

that feature kids and
target that audience online.

That's subscribers

and influence and reach
with the young demographic.

- Look, there's a shopping cart.

- What does it do?
- I don't know.

All right, get in.

Let's do this.

[screaming]

ZACH:
Adults were not sitting down

and watching
Fantastic Adventure videos.

The reality is these videos
were geared toward kids

and consumed by children
who wanted to see maybe kids

their age going on adventures
and activities.

- There's definitely several
subcategories

of parent influencers.

There's the daily
family vloggers,

like the Shaytards, OKbaby,

and the LaBrant Family who
post a video every day

and their whole thing is that
it's all really real.

I'm Camryn Turner,
and I'm an influencer.

[laughs]
I hate that word.

It just makes me sound like
I think I'm this big deal,

but it is my job title.

I'm a YouTuber, and I have
1.6 million subscribers.

There's a lot of responsibility

that comes with having

such a loud voice that is heard
by so many.

At any second, I could go live

and instantly be talking
to a ton of people who care.

You have to choose
what to do with that voice.

♪♪ ♪♪

Hi, guys. Welcome back
to Cam & Fam.

I started my channel
as Cam & Fam.

I run the show.

Let go of my hair.

I'm my own producer, editor.

She's hungry.

It's a one-man-band
type of thing.

Motherhood is already, like,
almost a competitive space.

And so when you add
vlogging to that

and numbers and comments,
it is intense...

Way more intense than anyone
could really imagine.

It is time to get started
for breakfast.

We are having pancakes.

- Mmm.
- Mmm.

We made sure that
every second of our day

was mostly accounted for.

Good morning.

First thing in the morning...

"Oh, we got bedhead, and
we're just snuggling in bed.

Good morning, everybody."

You know, the picture-perfect
family lifestyle.

There was constantly a question

with every video posted, like,
"Will this get views?"

You have to ask yourself that.

Where you going, Coco?

When I announced the pregnancy
of my second daughter,

for a few weeks straight,

every single video I posted had
at least a million views.

- [laughs]

CAMRYN: I was making around
$30,000 a month.

[dramatic music]

It became addictive.

♪♪ ♪♪

There was definitely
a lot of incentive

to follow the trends,

to keep up with what other
people were doing.

Certain channels started
to gain a lot of traction.

- There, the trap is set.

It's not working.

CAMRYN: The kids had
these big personalities,

and the parents really encourage

these big reactions.

- Just pick me up.
We're gonna lose.

- There's the content that is
very scripted... you can tell.

- I think I threw it too far.

- You think?

CHILD:
Fantastic Adventures.

CHILD 2: And we've been
searching and searching...

CAMRYN: Those videos
are 100% scripted.

There's no doubt.

Everything is centered
around getting those shots,

planning for it.

- Wow, we won.

- I knew we would.

CHILD:
You have nowhere to stay?

LEAH:
Fantastic Adventures

is a very highly curated
slice of life.

As a parent, and I imagine
for many other parents,

nobody's kitchen is that clean
when they have kids.

My name is Leah Plunkett, and
I'm the author of the book

Sharenthood:
Why We Should Think

before We Talk
about Our Kids Online.

If you want to be an influencer,

social media allows families
to bypass production studios,

to bypass professionals
of all sorts

and take matters
into their own hands.

The rise to fame
is an experience

that for many
can be really complicated.

Traditional child-performer laws

were written
before the YouTube era

to protect kids in Hollywood
or on Broadway.

We know, tragically,
that in some cases,

even those laws are not
comprehensive enough.

There are a lot of challenges
for kids later in life.

[applause]

On the other hand,

the commercial sharenting
sector is largely unregulated.

- Gee, Mickey, we don't know
how lucky we are

and how much we have
to be thankful for

with our health
and our happiness.

LEAH:
Child internet performers

are really at the mercy
of their parents

in ways that
are ripe for exploitation.

Fantastic Adventures...
Those kids might be called

kid influencers
or "kidfluencers,"

but you do not have
an eight-year-old,

no matter how talented
they might be,

on camera without a parent
somewhere in the background.

There are many
sharenting parents

who are not exploitive
in the least.

They are doing right
by their kids,

but there's also
bad actors out there

that may be criminal
and dangerous.

♪♪ ♪♪

- [gasps] There's the team.

Psst.
Hey, come over here.

ZACH: For nearly
a million subscribers,

Fantastic Adventures was
a daily part of the routine.

- Good job. We got that team.

- And the real influencer
was Machelle Hobson...

The mastermind behind all this.

She essentially
had a production company

in the form of her children.

Machelle has
four biological children...

Two sons, two daughters.

And then she had seven fostered,

then adopted children.

- We're gonna get him
with a snowball.

- Me first.

ZACH: YouTube was a huge part
of this family's life.

She had her older, adult
biological sons

writing, filming,
and directing these things.

And these fostered and adopted
children were essentially

child actors.

- I'm out of darts.

- They look happy.
They look healthy.

They're having fun.
- [speaking indistinctly]

- I think people look at that,
and they don't want to say,

"But what are we missing?"

- Get her.

ZACH: Machelle had
an endgame in all this.

She wanted to climb
the YouTube ladder,

and she had the means to do it.

She was a very ambitious,
intelligent person

when it came to marketing,
branding,

and she knew where she wanted
to go with this operation.

She knew she had reach
and influence

when it came to children
and their parents,

and she leveraged that

by partnering with
these large toy companies.

♪♪ ♪♪

Ultimately, she wanted
to work with Disney.

♪♪ ♪♪

Her adult children said

that they thought she
was gonna move to California

to get closer to that company

and the largest child brand
in the world.

♪♪ ♪♪

You think you know somebody

because you've consumed
hours of their life.

But it's not reality.

Machelle created an illusion,

and it couldn't have
been further

from what was actually
happening.

♪♪ ♪♪

Her real power came

at home when the cameras
weren't rolling.

♪♪ ♪♪

- [laughs evilly]
[electricity crackles]

KENT: The Fantastic Adventures
videos are all about playtime.

[dramatic music]

You would think that these kids

were just living
their absolute best life.

CHILD:
It's done.

KENT: I mean, quite frankly,
if my kids watched that

they'd be like, "Dad, why
don't we get to do that?"

- Let's do this.

- They start to believe

that that's how everyone's life
should be all the time.

[quirky music]

My name is Kent Volkmer, and
I'm the Pinal County Attorney.

Before I took this role,
I was in private practice,

dealing with kids
that were struggling.

Sometimes I would be the person

that would actually
file the petition

to have children put
into the system,

where hopefully
they would be safe.

Adoption, it's a long process.

You're typically looking
at six months

to potentially a year with
a thorough background check

and a home study.

Machelle Hobson
had been vetted by DCS,

and she took the children

that a lot of other families
did not want to take.

Some of these were kids
that have special needs

that already have a tough road
ahead of them.

They have greater
doctor's needs.

They have great
supervision needs.

And there are very, very
few homes in our community,

in our state, frankly,
that can take

seven high-needs children
all at one time.

And she was able to portray
herself as this savior

for these kids
that needed so much.

[whoosh]

[whistling, bell dings]

CHILD:
Uh-oh. What did you just do?

GINO:
Making YouTube videos...

They look like
they're having fun.

- You think?

GINO:
But beyond that,

to me, when they speak
their lines

in the back of their heads,

they're going
through their files and saying,

"Did I do that right?

Did I say that right?
Was that right?"

It's almost as if they are
scared to fuck that up.

♪♪ ♪♪

My name is Gino Valerio,

and I married Machelle
back in...

'95?

Me and Machelle went
to high school together.

We weren't in the same crowd.

I just knew of her.

And she was, like,
the smart students,

you know, the sexy,
good-looking gals.

They stay away
from the nerdy guys like me.

[laughs]

Uh, no.

After high school,
I went into the Marine Corps.

When I got out,

I was suffering from PTSD.

You know, always on guard
and always defensive.

So I just got into drugs
and drinking and gambling.

[voice breaking] I didn't know
what to do with my life.

♪♪ ♪♪

Mutual friend of ours...
[sighs]

Got me on this blind date
with Machelle.

And when she walked
into the room,

you knew this woman
was in charge of something.

Her control, her power,
her natural charisma...

I loved it.

She talked to me
all lovey-dovey, you know?

"I got you. I'm here.
I'll protect you.

I'll take care of you."
That kind of thing.

She started pulling me
out of the gutter

slowly and surely.

She got me clean and sober.
She got me a job.

I love her unconditionally
for that.

We got pregnant...

and so me and Machelle
got married.

[dramatic music]

That's us taking our vows, okay?

♪♪ ♪♪

After me and Machelle
got married,

literally the morning of it,

I found out she had
two children before me.

There's two boys
hanging out with her.

"Who are these boys, Machelle?"

"Oh, they're my sons."
"Wait, what?"

Completely shocked.

I didn't know she had
an ex-husband either.

But he had custody of the boys.

We've been together
for, like, a year.

Every day when we got together
and we started dating,

she would physically take off
the pictures

with her and her sons
off the walls.

She withheld pretty much
everything she could.

We have a daughter together.
That's why I stayed with her.

But after a while,
she starting getting

more "controllative"
and more "controllative."

I couldn't do anything.

I couldn't even breathe
until she told me to breathe.

Eventually, after me and
Machelle got divorced,

she got remarried,
moved to Arizona,

and then she adopted
all those kids.

Her brain... she knew how to find
loopholes in everything.

She knew how to get around
certain things.

Creating a business like this...

making YouTube videos...

not shocked at all, not at all.

♪♪ ♪♪

ZACH:
When reporting this story,

I talked to a lot
of neighbors...

people in Machelle's orbit,

and the prevailing sense I got

was that Machelle
was very secretive.

They kind of thought,
"Well, we knew there were kids

"in this house, but we never
saw them out riding bikes.

"We never saw them
going to the park.

"We didn't hear playing
in the pool much.

We do not know what went on
on a daily, hourly basis."

But it's pretty clear,

YouTube was
a almost full-time job.

They were making a living
off Fantastic Adventures.

♪♪ ♪♪

KENT:
So, for a period of time,

the children were enrolled
in the local public school.

One of the children reached
out to an authority figure.

Somebody that the child
trusted, which was her teacher.

She said, "Hey, this is
what's going on in my house."

ZACH: Machelle's daughter
told her teacher

that her mom
took her toothbrush,

which is why she had a bunch
of gunk in her teeth.

The teacher went out on a limb
to disclose this to DCS

and say, "I've seen
general neglect in this child,

"and she needs
to be taken care of

in a way that's not happening
at home."

- The Department
of Child Safety came out,

did an investigation,

and Machelle Hobson
was specifically told,

"Hey, this is the allegation
that this child made."

DCS looked at the history
of the child,

looked at some
of the experiences,

and, yes, relied on the fact

that there was a thorough
background investigation

that evaluated her,
evaluated her home,

spoke with other kids
in the home.

ZACH: DCS had a relationship
with Machelle.

She had dealt
with DCS caseworkers

for years and years.

And a lot of these kids

already have some form
of trauma,

being removed
from their biological parents.

So the state has
a responsibility

to ensure that they are put
in the care of good parents.

In Machelle's case,

there has to be a level
of trust in the home.

She fostered a lot of kids
over years.

Machelle always seemed calm

and said the right things
at every turn.

So DCS left that little girl
in Machelle's care.

♪♪ ♪♪

At the end of the day,

these kids were pulled from
school so they could act 24-7.

The parent has
a lot of power there.

KENT: In Arizona,
we have a fairly robust

homeschooling community.

All of those are
completely sanctioned

and actually very common.

Once they were pulled
out of school,

once she could really focus
her efforts

into generating content,

that's when the YouTube channel

really started to rise
to prominence.

She was really doing
all of the groundwork

to set up an empire.

Machelle put a lot of money
into her equipment.

She had just purchased a house
in California.

Out there it gives them
more opportunity

to have more outdoor filming.

♪♪ ♪♪

This was their entire world.
This was their universe.

♪♪ ♪♪

Social media, Facebook,
anything like that...

New technology, new freedoms
inherently come with new risks

and new problems
that we didn't anticipate.

On YouTube, there are those
people that are really just

documenting their everyday
family life.

[all screaming]

When done right,
that's a great thing to do.

When done wrong,
you get Machelle Hobson.

- The Grinch!

- Whoa, good job.

I had no idea that bush
was a player.

There's only one more team left.

Let's win this.

- Watching any content
from Machelle Hobson,

you have to ask yourself,
"Is this exploitative or not?"

What the difference is, for me,

it's like, can you post
a video on your channel

without your kids in it,

or are they the backbone
of your channel?

- [gasps] Look.

There they are.

CAMRYN:
It's really a game you play,

because young kids just don't
really know what it means

to be filmed, and they cannot
consent to that.

BOTH:
Welcome back, Camily.

- We're gonna start getting
ready for our day

When I was in the height
of my popularity on YouTube...

All right, I am all ready.

I was spending more time
filming than I was parenting.

I would spend the whole day
in bed on my laptop,

adamant about seeing every
single comment

that got posted,

and I wanted the validation
more than anything,

the praise.

But anytime I complained
about the struggles

with being an influencer,

I would get people saying,
"You chose this life."

And I did, but I think there's
a question of,

at what point is it a decision,

and at what point
is it your only option?

The only thing
that made me me was...

being a YouTuber

and being a mother
and being a wife.

- It's really delicious, though.

CAMRYN: At a certain point,

certain people could tell

that what I was selling
was a lie.

It's so much harder
than we let people believe.

What a productive day.
- Yes, it was.

CAMRYN:
Every family vlogger

has something that they're not
sharing with the audience.

There's always room for lies
and secrets,

and there's always things
to hide.

And...

- We'll see you in the next
video, Camily. Peace.

- Why do you always
say "peace" now?

- Peace.

♪♪ ♪♪

♪♪ ♪♪

CHILD:
What are you doing?

CHILD 2:
I'm trying to find a werewolf!

CHILD:
Are you okay?

When is the last time you slept?

- [laughs]
I don't know, last Tuesday.

♪♪ ♪♪

- It is ironic that this video
has a monster,

a giant werewolf that these
kids are hunting down

and shooting with their guns.

- He went upstairs.
He's cornered.

There's no escape.

- Sort of fitting for this case.

- You go in that room,
and I'll go in this one.

KENT: I was about 2 1/2 years
into my career

as a prosecutor when
I actually received a call

from the Maricopa
Chief of Police

and just said, "Hey, Kent, you
need to be aware of this one."

There were allegations
so horrific,

we knew the media
was going to be involved

and every move that we made

was gonna be under a microscope.

Machelle Hobson's empire,
if you will,

was entirely ran by her
immediate family members.

Her daughter, Megan, did some
of the merchandising

and, frankly, helped a little
bit of the babysitting.

She would make sure that things
were running smoothly.

Megan needed to take one of
the children to the dentist,

and the child's teeth were
in terrible decay...

just rotting.

She started asking
some questions,

and some of the answers
really shocked her,

so she got her cell phone out,
and she recorded

the conversation she had
with the child.

MEGAN:
What about Mom?

CHILD: How... where she locks me
in a room,

doesn't give me blanket.

MEGAN:
What kind of room is it?

CHILD: A closet,
and it's a tile floor...

No carpet,
just an empty green room.

And she has a lock on it, so we
can't get out to have to pee,

if we have to pee or anything.

KENT: So Megan hears
this little child,

her adopted sibling,

say that if they're
not performing

like they're supposed to,

they're getting locked
in the green room.

And then if they continue
to screw up,

then the punishments actually
get worse.

CHILD:
If we do something wrong,

like drop something
on the floor or something,

she doesn't let us eat

for at least two days straight
or maybe more.

MEGAN: What's the longest
she's ever made you go

without eating?

CHILD:
Four days, straight four days.

MEGAN: No food and no water?
CHILD: No food, no water.

KENT: Megan did not live
in this house,

but she had suspicions.

And as she's driving,

Megan's starting to put
two and two together.

She's starting to say,
"I know the exact room

that they're describing."

She had no choice
but to come forward.

She then reaches out
to law enforcement

and says, "I have a video
that you really need to see."

CHILD: When we are bad,
my mom gives us ice baths,

many ice baths... not just one,
many ice baths.

KENT: The allegations
were so, so detailed

and coming from
such a small child,

The Maricopa City
Police Department

immediately began investigating.

♪♪ ♪♪

They discovered that the kids

were removed from school
and homeschooled.

They did speak
with some of the teachers

and some of the nurses.

They recalled some bumps
and bruises...

Nothing that rose to the level
to suggest

that they were enduring
the kind of abuse described.

CHILD: If we do anything wrong,
she pepper-sprays us,

and then she makes us sit
with the pepper spray on us

for a whole entire day straight.

KENT: They would talk
about pepper spray.

And then Megan is also
confirming these same things

to law enforcement, saying,

"Yeah, I remember seeing
pepper spray in the room.

"Yeah, I know that, you know,
when they're offered food,

like, they just scarf it down,
and they gobble it all down."

It's potentially
life-threatening.

So we needed to get
in there immediately,

and we needed to start hearing
from the kids individually

and find out what's actually
happening in this house.

MEGAN: Do you think any of the
kids should live there?

CHILD: No.
I think they're not safe there.

♪♪ ♪♪

[doorbell rings]

KENT: Law enforcement goes
to the Hobson residence.

Machelle Hobson's in the house

and also her two adult children,

who were males in their 20s.

And then the seven adopted
children were all in the home.

[door closes]

KENT: Machelle
was very calm, saying,

"Oh, that's problematic,
that's troublesome,"

but did not seem to be riled,
did not seem to be concerned.

She had all of her ducks
in a row.

She had established... "Social
workers have looked at me.

The DCS system
has looked at me, the state."

In her mind, it was,
"You can believe this child

with all these problems,
or you can believe me."

They find children sporadically

all throughout the house
in various rooms.

Some of the rooms were locked.

Some of the rooms
didn't even have mattresses.

Most of the children
were in Pull-Ups,

which struck them
as a little bit odd,

given the age of the children.

Law enforcement, oftentimes,
when they first make contact

with kids, they want to find
some level of connection,

but they were clearly
very, very afraid.

Just hearing those kids
in the background,

that's heart-wrenching.

[child sniffles, cries softly]

- You have these kids
that are truly petrified.

Even eating the food,
they were very hesitant,

and they were still quivering.

After listening
to the children speak,

it was very clear that,
hey, when it comes to

Machelle's voice versus
another authority's voice...

Machelle's voice wins out.

We almost immediately got
these children

into these forensic interviews,

where she could not
get ahold of them

and we could actually hear
directly from the children

what they experienced,
what they saw,

what they went through,
and they're all recorded.

We've got multiple sources

saying essentially
the same thing...

Just horrible, traumatic,
monstrous abuse.

The kids all described

a very similar sort of pattern.

Filming days... they were
rewarded with snacks.

They were rewarded with food.
They were celebrated.

The rest of the time
they were isolated,

they were essentially prisoners

that were locked in this house.

We reviewed receipts

of money that came in
from Google.

We saw some of them that were
in the six figures.

Machelle Hobson, she had over
800,000 followers

and had over 250 million
individual views.

The Fantastic Adventures...

That's not what
their real life was.

You see these kids doing
these really fun

and exciting things that would
make every little kid jealous.

- What's up, guys?
You're the best.

KENT: When in reality, they
never left their backyard.

They did everything out
of pure, unadulterated fear.

- A mother now
under arrest tonight.

Prosecutors
have charged that mom

with abusing the children.

REPORTER:
Police also accuse

Hobson's two biological
adult male sons

of failing to report the abuse,

despite knowing about it.

The on-camera scenarios
chillingly similar

to what police say
was the reality.

- See?
We're trapped.

♪♪ ♪♪

[dramatic music]

♪♪ ♪♪

- One week ago,
Maricopa Police got the call...

Reports of children being
starved, pepper-sprayed,

even locked in closets.

Police say Machelle Hobson
had the world fooled...

- This mother was
a master manipulator.

ZACH:
With YouTube videos

showing happy and healthy kids.

- Hey, guys, this video might be

a little scary for you
younger guys.

If you're not sure,
ask an adult.

And for the rest of you...

[deep, evil voice]
Enjoy the show.

- People look at that,
and it's a visceral reaction.

You feel so angry.

It was sickening to hear

what was happening to them
behind closed doors

and then to see them on YouTube

and the appearance
or facade of happiness.

- Hmm.

ZACH:
I covered it

as a general-assignment
reporter.

And I'll never forget...

You know, driving down there,
I read the police report.

And they had physical signs
of abuse on their bodies...

♪♪ ♪♪

Burn scars, bruising,

even bruising around the neck.

All of the physical evidence
corroborated the kids' story

about the abuse
that was happening

behind closed doors.

- So did you guys have fun
at the water park today?

- It was awesome.

KENT:
The law enforcement community

was just as outraged that two
adult children in the home

could be in that same household

and do nothing to intervene.

ZACH: If you spent any
serious time in that house,

you would've noticed
a lot of red flags.

♪♪ ♪♪

The kids' rooms were filthy.

There was stuff piled up...

Neck high in some cases
of just clothes and trash.

There's the fact that were
locks on the outside of doors.

Why is that necessary unless
you're locking someone inside?

♪♪ ♪♪

KENT:
We did review the case

against Machelle's
two adult sons.

When we evaluated the law
that we have here in Arizona

and we compared their actions
to the law,

we found that they had no duty

to those children
for caregiving.

Their mother was always there.

So we dismissed all charges
against the two.

Machelle Hobson is certainly
the mastermind.

♪♪ ♪♪

This is greed.
This is money.

We're talking potentially
millions of dollars of income

on an annual basis.

We reviewed
a lot of the documentation...

Looking through mail,

looking at various negotiations

with all kinds of advertisers.

There was dialogue with Disney,

trying to get Disney
to be an advertiser.

It was clear that she thought
that that was her pot of gold.

You could clearly see
the escalation,

and it was really when
the money started pouring in

and the need to do
more production,

more elaborate productions
to get more air time...

That's when it appears

that the physical abuse
really started to escalate.

The only way she could've
been an influencer

was using these children.

They were chattel.

They were goods
that were being used.

♪♪ ♪♪

- She was good at that.

She was really good
at making sure

that people saw
what she wanted them to see

and nothing else.

♪♪ ♪♪

[indistinct shouting]

We were split up,

and she was so brutal
towards me.

She threatened...

our daughter several times.

"You cannot talk to Gino.
You cannot"...

So that's why
I could never see her.

All I knew... she was in Arizona.

And, really, that was it.

Like everything else
that Machelle did,

she controlled it all.

And then in 2019,

my daughter called me.

It was great to hear her voice.

"Wow. How are you?
What's going on?"

"Well, did you hear
about my mom?"

[scoffs]
"No."

"Well, here's the
information."

Boom.

I get the news article,

you know, and the video.

I'm looking at that, thinking...

"Holy shit."

She never talked about adoption

when we were together.

I had no clue
she would do that, you know,

no clue.

Machelle wanted everything,
and she wanted it her way.

She picked the easy marks.

She loved that power.

She would've taken it and
taken more and more and more.

I felt bad for them,
all of them...

Not just my daughter,
for everyone.

They were POWs.
They were prisoners of war.

- Look over there.

- No child should ever be put
in that position.

♪♪ ♪♪

ZACH: I got a tip
from a source on this story

that kind of told me
I need to stay on it.

He said, "Hey, you know
that story you reported?

"The Maricopa Police Department

got a call at that exact
address two years prior."

Right after I got that tip,

I filed
a blanket records request

for the police reports,
the photos,

the forensic interviews,
the body-camera video.

♪♪ ♪♪

We found out that December 2017,

one of the children
who had been in these videos

ran away from the house.

This child was found
in the backyard

of a different person's home
completely naked.

[siren wails]

Police took him to a hospital,

and they allowed Machelle
to show up

and be by his bedside
relatively quickly.

♪♪ ♪♪

So, after that child ran away
from home,

he told them, "I'm being abused.

"I'm being starved,
and I'm being pepper-sprayed.

Please do not take me
back to that house."

KENT:
We actually have a protocol.

We don't just go in
guns blazing,

call the SWAT team,
kick in doors,

and just assume everything

that the child said is accurate.

It's so important that
everybody be spoken to

and everybody be spoken to
separately.

Law enforcement at that time
confronts Machelle

and says, "Hey, you know,
what's your side

of the story on this?"

And Machelle says,
"I'm the foster parent.

"This is a child that has
severe behavioral issues.

"I run a strict household.

"They got out. That's on me.

I can do a better job
of locking things."

This is somebody

from a middle-to-upper-
middle-class neighborhood

who had hundreds
of thousands of dollars

either in the bank
or recently spent.

You don't look like a monster.

You don't look like a person
that could commit

these just horrific atrocities
on little children.

She was able to put the concerns

of that patrol officer at ease.

- Instead of categorizing that
as criminal child abuse

in the report,

they allowed it
to stay categorized

as a child runaway
welfare issue check.

And they allowed those children
to stay in the home.

♪♪ ♪♪

OFFICER:
Mm-hmm.

KENT:
It is our belief

that child then suffered
the consequences

of coming forward,
and Machelle Hobson made sure

that every other child
in that household

knew exactly what happened when
he went forward to authorities.

ZACH: We found out that this
had been going on for years.

Based on police documents alone,

the Arizona Department
of Child Safety

had been alerted to Machelle

about abuse
and neglect allegations

11 different times.

In this case, both sides
thought the other

was going to handle it.

Maricopa Police
thought DCS had it.

DCS thought
Maricopa Police had it.

And both dropped the ball.

♪♪ ♪♪

- Because there weren't
adequate resources,

they cut corners,
or they made judgment calls,

and as a result,
these children got harmed.

Maricopa PD went back.

They uncovered some stuff that
they could've done better.

They said, "Look, we should've
seen these signs."

- In hindsight,
there was some mistakes.

KENT: What ends up happening
is you see this abuse

over and over and over.

You get desensitized to it.

♪♪ ♪♪

OFFICER:
Straight ahead.

KENT: Given the severity
of the crimes

and the likelihood
that she would try

and get ahold
of these children...

OFFICER:
And take a left.

- We believed that she was
a danger to our community

and a serious flight risk.

OFFICER:
Go ahead and stop right here.

- Our case rested solely
on the testimony of these kids.

If she could convince
even one of these kids

to say that everybody
made it up,

she potentially could end up
beating these charges.

OFFICER: Okay, why don't
you step up to the bench?

And go ahead and sit down.

[line trilling]

ELECTRONIC VOICE: Hello,
this is a free call from...

ZACH:
There was a fear

her attorneys would've pointed
to the YouTube videos and said,

"None of this house-of-horror
stuff existed

because you have
the real truth on video."

She could walk free again.

REPORTER: Tonight,
the mom accused of abusing

at least five
of her seven adopted children

in an Arizona courtroom,

handcuffed and in a wheelchair.

LAWYER: We'll waive a reading,
enter a not-guilty plea, Judge.

REPORTER: Machelle Hobson
facing 30 egregious counts.

OFFICER: Okay, I'm right here.
Slide this way.

- All right.
I can't.

ZACH:
At the time of her arrest,

Machelle Hobson was
48 years old,

and she did not take
very good care of herself.

OFFICER:
Step up.

- There were questions
about if she was going to be

medically competent
to stand trial.

[line trills]

ELECTRONIC VOICE:
This is a free call from...

ELECTRONIC VOICE 2:
Pinal County Sheriff's Office.

- We were informed that
she had a medical emergency.

Her defense counsel reached out

and said it's very serious.
[siren wailing]

She was taken by ambulance
to the hospital.

- We drove down to Maricopa
for a morning court appearance

in hopes of seeing her in court,

and she never showed up.

She had had some sort of stroke.

[dramatic music]

I was working one night,
and I actually got a text

from the same source
who tipped me off years ago

and told me,
"Keep digging on this.

Keep pulling this thread."

And he said,
"Machelle Hobson's just died."

- ABC 15, the first
to report tonight...

Hobson died hours ago
in Scottsdale.

- I had mixed reactions.

On the one hand,
we were looking forward

to exposing her
for the monster that she was.

But on the other hand,
there was a bit of relief.

These kids no longer
have to testify.

They don't have to relive
this horrible trauma.

We know that there's
consequences to that.

She will never be able to harm
them or any other child again.

And that is...

the best justice
that we can get.

♪♪ ♪♪

ZACH: So I remember feeling
just like

a chapter was over
in this story,

but I wanted the people in
power who missed these signs

to see what had happened.

These kids were overlooked

and failed at so many levels.

For nearly a decade,

at least seven kids

the Arizona Department
of Child Safety

was charged with protecting

said they were starved,

beaten, burned, pepper-sprayed,

and pulled from school.

This news report blew up.

We had a lot of people
reaching out to us,

telling their experiences
with DCS,

what they went through

either as a parent, a child.

It really resonated with people.

KENT: The community was
outraged by what they heard.

The most upsetting thing to me
personally is...

the trust that was broken
with these kids.

We placed them with a monster

who terrorized
and traumatized them.

[child shouting indistinctly
on computer]

KENT: We then had to yank them
away yet again,

separate them
from all of their siblings,

and we had to place them with
yet a completely new family

and tell them, "Trust us.
This time we'll get it right."

We tried to place them together,

but all the children
were not ultimately reunited.

ZACH: I think for everyday,
average Arizonans,

they saw this and thought,
"I had no idea

"that our government
institutions

designed to protect children
could fail to this level."

Case workers didn't get one
shot to save these children.

They got more than ten.

It's just... it's infuriating.

They refused to give us
any records,

citing child-privacy laws,

despite the fact that they
could redact those names

and that Machelle
has passed away.

If your job
is to protect children

and you were the case worker
on the Hobson case,

there's got to be
a lot of guilt.

If this could happen
on their watch,

they need to ask themselves,

"What else have we missed,
and why did we miss this?"

Because we don't know

how many Machelle Hobsons
are out there.

♪♪ ♪♪

CAMRYN: People
like Machelle Hobson...

CHILD:
[on computer] What's he doing?

CAMRYN:
Bring a negative light

to family vloggers.

But sometimes there needs to be
a negative light.

Like, a lot of these moms
are living in denial

about what is really
going on here

and what the risks are.

Obviously, not all these cases
are as extreme,

but there are questions
that need to be asked.

In the YouTuber community,

that kind of stuff happens

way more often than you'd think.

And people do a very good job
at hiding it.

♪♪ ♪♪

Over the last year,
I've really taken a step back

and thought about
the potential consequences

of sharing my children's life
online to this extent...

Taking away all this privacy.

Oh, she's a big girl now.

Oh, you got me.
- [laughs]

- I decided to open my laptop
and do a deep dive,

and that's when I realized
there were predators

liking these videos,
saving them,

adding them to playlists
for later.

And I was sick to my stomach
when I found that out.

♪♪ ♪♪

LEAH:
We live in a world already,

where, once a child's image
is online,

a parent has no meaningful
control over that image.

But also, all of us as parents
are still figuring out

the digital world for ourselves.

Many of us post a lot,

some of us a lot a lot.

Some of us
make a living posting.

♪♪ ♪♪

Feeling this pressure to get
more and more eyeballs on it,

drive up the advertising revenue

may actually then lead
to horrific behavior

that the kids are
on the receiving end of.

[child on computer
shouts indistinctly]

LEAH: In the case
of Fantastic Adventures,

it really does seem
that without this viewership,

there might not have been
the same type of abuse

and neglect happening
in the first place.

We do not have labor laws
right now

that consistently
and comprehensively protect

kids who perform
on social media for money.

Core protections would include

making sure the child
was still being educated,

making sure that the child
wasn't working too many hours,

putting money
into a trust account for them.

ZACH: Whether or not you're
on a real set in Hollywood

or you're filming
for YouTube videos,

there's trauma that goes along

with being famous
at a young age.

Children should have
the right to say,

"This is my voice, and I should
decide what I want to be in."

And they should be able
to be a kid

and not a performative cash cow.

YouTube removed
Fantastic Adventures

pretty quickly after it came
to their attention

that these children
were victims of abuse.

♪♪ ♪♪

Bad things happen
every single day.

People get scammed and conned,
and that's horrible,

and it ruins their lives...
It really does.

A lot of stuff in this world
can be replaced.

But what you can't do

is you can't give a child
back their innocence.

Machelle robbed them
of a childhood

in every sense of the word.

♪♪ ♪♪

KENT:
These kids matter.

They spoke their truth.
They were honest.

They were straightforward,
and they were disbelieved.

I believe them.
We believe them.

- We're out of darts.
What are we going to do?

- More than anything, I want
them to find a family

that will love them
for who they are,

not exploit them, not use them,

not see them as a meal ticket,
but instead care for them,

love them, give them
the family that they deserve.

♪♪ ♪♪

- I hope they don't see
the story.

I hope they've moved on to a
different point in their life

where they don't think
of themselves

as the YouTube Mom kids.

That's my hope.

I just hope they're okay.