‘Teen Torture, Inc.’ and Paris Hilton Take on the Abuse Industry

The so-called “industry staple for troubled teens” will face another round of criticism this summer with its July premiere Teen Torture, Inc.., Max’s new documentary about the billion-dollar industry that kidnaps, abuses, and brainwashes young Americans. Paris Hilton spoke before Congress last week to defend Americans who lack the resources to stop the cruel practices she experienced.

The documentary premieres July 11, and the just-released trailer gives a taste of the harrowing stories the film tells through those who advocate for its closure for good. Rapper Bhad Bhabie is one of several survivors featured in director Tara Malone’s new documentary who recall the abuse they endured after being uprooted from their homes and subjected to weeks of extreme behavioral therapy that they say went beyond extreme.

Tough love is the name of the game in these camps and facilities, which are often called “youth residential treatment centers.” But as Max’s documentary explains, the treatment has led to death, suicide, PTSD, and other lifelong mental and physical health issues.

“When kids are in trouble, it’s an extreme situation for parents, and these shows offer an ‘extreme’ solution,” says one of the film’s characters in the trailer.

The short clip is a series of interviews with camp survivors and advocates who discuss the torture and humiliation they experienced as teenagers after being sent away by parents who did not know how to correct the teenagers’ behavior during the most difficult years of their adolescence. What appears to be a reconstruction of what the survivors say happened to them is cut into the entire clip as advocates and survivors dissolve into tears.

The film then appears to follow the money to explain how entrenched power keeps an industry that so many see as abusive afloat and continues its alleged abuses. It was the abuse at “youth treatment centers” that prompted 2000s icon Hilton to testify before the House Ways and Means Committee on June 26.

Hilton, a mother of two, testified that in one such center she was brutally detained, stripped naked and thrown into solitary confinement, four of which she had been in as a youth. Washington Post 2021 article, Hilton writes that she was “choked, punched in the face, spied on in the showers and deprived of sleep” in these camps. Now, like advocates in Teen Torture, Inc.is determined to ensure that this type of abuse never happens again.

“I will not stop until the youth of America are safe,” Hilton said in her testimony. “If you are a child in the system, listen to my words: I see you. I believe you. I know what you are going through, and I will not give up.”