The uncomfortable new era of influencer 'content houses.'

Influencer 'content houses' are nothing new.

But for many casual social media scrollers, (ahem, me), it might come as a surprise just how many of those 'viral dances' you've seen flooding your feeds explode thanks to them.

Or it might surprise you, just how many views this set-up is responsible for racking up (spoiler, tens of millions per post).

In short, a content house is a big ol' house full of influencers creating content together for the mutual benefit of increasing their fanbase and therefore, their revenue.

Listen: The Quicky unpacks the world of content houses. Post continues below.

They began as 'YouTube' houses around 2014 and 2015, but really started to boom in 2019 and 2020 on TikTok, with the creation of places like 'Hype House' and 'Sway House.'

Even the D'Amelio sisters Charli and Dixie (aka some of the most popular creators on the platform), have taken part in this concept.

The houses are usually super-fancy mansions and they're decked out with professional equipment for video and photo production. Sometimes they're funded by talent agencies, sometimes by brands and sometimes by creators themselves.

Creators cross-promote each other, leverage each other's audiences, collaborate on ideas for viral content, et cetera, et cetera… you get the idea.

Watch: There was a Netflix doco made on Hype House, one of the OG content houses. Post continues below.

But it's worth pointing out that many of the creators who take part are young. They're mostly in their late teens, early 20s, and many have never lived out of home before.

While content houses might get results that see them earn eye-watering amounts of cash, there's also a very dark side.

A world of toxic competition and bullying, financial exploitation and more recently, child safety concerns.

Let's get into it.

The 'Bop House': An uncomfortable new era.

The new era of content houses is in Only Fans territory; with The Bop House (Bop meaning 'baddie on point' which is slang for a person who uses their body to make money), only kicking off in December 2024.

I've seen it being referred to as the new 'Playboy mansion,' minus Hugh Hefner.

Based in Florida, the home's eight members have a combined 33 million followers. As a group, they apparently made US $10 million in revenue in their first month.

@bophouse

♬ original sound - jermy

On TikTok and Instagram their content together is mostly innocent; viral dances, silly pranks, that kind of thing.

But there are a lot of bikinis, and a lot of... jumping. It's modest yet suggestive, with the videos then linking out to the women's more adult content, acting as a funnel to where they're making the real cash.

The main concern is: how are these young women, aged 17–24, making so much money? And who, exactly, is watching them?

Even Bop House member Camilla Araujo was horrified after it was revealed her fellow house member Julia Filippo made US$54,000 in a week after joining OnlyFans.

"Y'all are sick f***s because she looks 12," she said.

@camilla

How much my assistant made at her new job…

♬ original sound - Camilla Araujo

In addition to concerns about exploitation, there are fears they're glamourising the sex industry for young girls, who would be watching their more 'PG' content on TikTok.

A quick glance at the content and there's something uncomfortable about it that's hard to articulate.

It all has a very young, 'teen sleepover' type feel to it, which acts as the gateway to their OnlyFans profiles which are much more provocative.

As Jonathon Hutchinson, Associate Professor of Digital Media at the University of Sydney told Mamamia's The Quicky, "There's nothing that 'bad' in what they're doing. But socially we've moved on from the public 'sexiness' of young girls, and I think that's probably what people are queuing into here [in feeling uncomfortable]".

The Bop House is only the latest content house iteration, however.

Over the years, we've seen them branch off in several strange directions — most of which have ended in some kind of controversy. Which brings us to…

MomTok: The swinging scandal.

While more 'traditional' content houses see influencers literally living and working in one space together, there has been an offshoot trend towards creator houses that are purely like... sets.

As in, creators will descend on the content house to make videos together, but then return to their homes nearby.

@taylorfrankiepaul thankful for these moms #momtok ♬ original sound - Kinross uwu

Which is exactly what a group of Mormon mums in Utah did in 2021, and boy, did their content house quite literally explode with controversy.

The Mormon 'MomTok' influencers (as they dubbed themselves), firstly gained notoriety for their dance videos, beauty hacks, and trending videos pushing the boundaries of the Mormon faith.

But then it was revealed that some of them were partaking in 'soft-swinging,' aka, spouse swapping. The MomTok gang splintered into a million pieces as the internet lapped up the story.

Given the MomTok 'leader' Taylor Frankie Paul was at the centre of the swinging controversy, the whole 'content house' idea went out the window pretty quickly…

If you want to deep dive into that situation, Disney recently released The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives which unpacks it all.

7M: The cult.

One of the more disturbing iterations of content houses is '7M,' which is perhaps better known as the 'TikTok cult.'

It consists of dancers who joined a management company and its associated Shekinah Church, from which a number of unsettling allegations have emerged.

As the Netflix series Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult revealed, members were asked to "die" to themselves and their families, meaning they were to cease all contact with their old lives to ensure they all went to heaven.

The family of one member, Miranda Wilking, first expressed their concerns publicly in 2022 via social media, with the group seemingly still operating in 2025.

While they don't live in a house together, they only collaborate on shared content with other members of the 'group.'

@bdash_2 We hit every beat pt.2 @_aubreyfisher @mirandawilking1 @_kyliedoug #squadgoals ♬ original sound - BDash

Former member Aubrey Fisher alleges that the group's founder, Pastor Robert Sinn, takes up to 70 per cent of the dancer's incomes.

Other allegations from ex-members include brainwashing, physical and sexual abuse, emotional abuse, manipulation and exploitation.

The Hype House and Sway House: The OGs.

Things are always going to get… dangerous, when you have a bunch of young 'famous' people living in million-dollar mansions.

Two of the big ones back in TikTok's earlier days of skyrocketing popularity were Hype House and Sway House; both in LA.

Within weeks of its creation, Hype House videos were attracting more than 100 million viewers. Up to 20 million followers were obsessed with watching their favourite creators pranking each other, ordering sometimes 20 UberEats a day and dancing….there was lots of dancing.

@thehypehouse

Goodbye TikTok 🫡

♬ original sound - The Hype House

But as time went on, the house was accused of exploitation, bullying and sexual harassment — with some members accusing the co-founders of making business deals without their knowledge or consent.

The house was sued in 2023 by their landlord for $600,000 worth of property damage, and breaching their lease.

In the lawsuit, the owner detailed damage to expensive tiles with skateboards, damage to the jacuzzi and extensive water and roof damage.

"I didn't film these damages," Daniel Fitzgerald told KTLA. "They actually put these damages on YouTube. It says in their lease no fireworks allowed, no pyrotechnics in the house."

Sway House was known for its rivalry with Hype House, and had its own addicted fanbase with 4.2 million followers. But the group, known as 'the One Direction of TikTok,' had their own drama to contend with.

In 2020, two members were arrested on drugs-related charges. The house was also accused of COVID-19 party violations at the height of the pandemic, and 'frat-like' disruptive behaviour including a disregard for noise and trash.

Sway House officially disbanded in 2021, while The Hype House lasted nearly five years only dissolving in mid-2024.

As Associate Professor Hutchinson told The Quicky, "It's the long term impact on [these creators], that might be the issue here.

"In that right now, it's an excellent strategy to be working with eachother, to be sharing content and boosting eachother's content….but that's for the now.

"As we've seen with the internet and social media, that hangs around online forever. In five, 10, 20 years from now, this activity will potentially come back to haunt them".

Feature image: Instagram/@bophouse.