California has some of the strictest protections in the country for child performers.

But in a time where social media fame is a full-time job for many teens and tweens,

regulating child labor is tricky, especially because a lot of this stuff is being filmed in private homes.

Take 15-year-old Piper Raquel.

She and her group call themselves a squad,

and they have more than 10 million subscribers on YouTube. But some former members of the squad,

they're not happy. I kept going over and doing videos, and it was like nothing was weird for a while,

so it did get weird.

In a civil lawsuit, they claimed that they were, quote, frequently subjected to an emotionally, physically, and sometimes sexually abusive environment, end quote.

We all just cried.

We were like, we kind of just left what almost felt like a cult.

You know what I mean?

I know that we were all very happy and grateful because we could just breathe again.

This lawsuit offers an unsettling glimpse into a largely unregulated world of social media and its child stars.

I'm Gustav Ariano. You're listening to the Times, essential news from the LA Times.

It's Wednesday, February 8, 2003. Today, the lawsuit that's putting a YouTube child star's multi-million dollar company

in jeopardy. Amy Kaufman is an LA Times senior entertainment writer and our colleague Jessica

Gill is an arts and culture writer. Amy and Jessica, welcome the times. Thanks for having us,

Gustavo. Thank you for having us.

So, Amy, who's at the center of this lawsuit?

Well, her name is Piper Raquel.

She's a 15-year-old who has millions of followers on YouTube.

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