Brie Bella is done taking chances when it comes to putting her kids on social media after something seriously ugly happened on Halloween. The WWE Hall of Famer says an anonymous account repeatedly targeted her six-year-old son Buddy underneath a family post, and the whole thing changed how she plans to handle her children online.
During The Nikki & Brie Show, Brie revealed that she had originally posted photos of her family celebrating Halloween before quietly deleting them. Anyone wondering where those pictures went now has an answer.
“I’m gonna lead to something that actually happened on Halloween. I posted my family, I posted us — our Halloween photos. People probably don’t realize I deleted that post.”
Brie believes the account responsible was a bot, although she couldn’t confirm that for certain. She explained that the profile had zero followers, followed nobody, had no profile picture and appeared to use a random number as its name.
“And if you’re wondering why, it’s because a bot — and I’m gonna say it’s a bot because I went to this page. Zero followers, following nobody, and it had no picture. It was like a number, whatever.”
What started as one nasty comment apparently didn’t stop there. Brie said the account repeatedly went after Buddy, eventually leaving around 20 comments and images mocking her son.
“But it went after Buddy, which is so wild. And it kept — it was all gross. But by the way, do you have to buy bots, right? Well, that’s what I was thinking. But by the way, it was going comment after comment. It probably had 20 comments and images making fun of Buddy, going after him.”
That was enough for Brie. She deleted the entire Halloween post and said the experience has now convinced her to stop sharing her children on social media altogether.
“So I deleted the post, and then that led me to all this b*******. You’re not gonna see my kids anymore. I’m not gonna post them anymore.”
The incident also got Brie thinking about kids who have their own social media accounts. Rather than judging parents who allow it, she suggested taking away one of the easiest ways strangers can directly target them — the comment section.
“What it showed me — and I really hope parents who, if you’re listening and you allow your child to have social media, don’t feel bad about it. A lot of people do. I think you should take comments off.”
One part of the Halloween incident particularly bothered Brie. Out of everyone in the family photos, she noticed that the account appeared to specifically target the youngest person pictured.
“What I realized when I posted Buddy, I go, ‘Something targeted the youngest person in the photos.’”
That made Brie wonder what could happen when younger users post pictures themselves. She believes abusive or automated accounts could potentially target those kids directly, even when the child has no idea what might be waiting in the comments.
“Now, what I think is, when young kids are posting, right, these middle schoolers and stuff, there could be bots going after them. It’s not real people.”
Brie then started imagining the same thing happening to an older child who might take the abuse much more personally. She specifically mentioned her daughter Birdie and teenagers dealing with that kind of attention online.
“And now Buddy’s six. He would’ve probably told you to f*** off. But I was thinking, if it was Birdie who had Instagram, I was thinking about a 12-year-old or a 14-year-old, or even a 15-year-old dealing with this.”
That led Brie to make a more direct plea to parents. If they’re going to allow their children to have Instagram or similar accounts, she isn’t looking to shame them for it, but she does think there should be some serious safeguards.
“But what I was thinking to myself, maybe, okay, you’re gonna let your kid have Instagram. I’m not gonna fight you on that. I might debate you on why I think it’s wrong, but if you do, that’s fine.”
Brie then spelled out what she would recommend. For her, shutting down the comment section altogether could remove at least one avenue for people or automated accounts to target children.
“But I think you should have no comments. Like, don’t let people….. just protect your child as much as possible. Yeah, it’s our job. Talk to them.”
The conversation then widened beyond social media itself. Brie admitted parents also need to pay attention to what they discuss around their children because kids can pick up a hell of a lot more than adults realize.
“Also, I do think we have to protect our children and not talk about any of this stuff around them.”
Nikki agreed and admitted she had recently experienced that herself with her son Matteo. After something her mother sent her led to a conversation about a plane crash, Matteo was close enough to hear it and immediately started asking questions.
“I agree. And I have to be better because I did — well, because Mom sent the thing, and I clicked on it. And so Matteo wasn’t far. And then he’s like, ‘What is that?’ And then, you know him with planes. He loves to know everything about planes, so he had so many questions.”
Nikki realized the conversation had stuck with Matteo when those questions continued afterwards. She could tell he had become worried after learning that a family had been involved.
“But now it’s been a lot of questions like, ‘Well, so where did they go then after the plane crashed?’ Like, you could tell he’s been worried because, you know, knowing that it was a family.”
Brie admitted she has made the same mistake around her own children. Even when she thinks they’re busy somewhere else in the house, they’re apparently still listening to conversations between her and Bryan Danielson.
“Oh, I’m guilty of talking about stuff, thinking, ‘Oh, my kids are…..’ Like, I’m in the kitchen talking to Bryan, and they’re over in the living room area. But they hear.”
Nikki said that even when children look completely distracted, they can still be paying very close attention to what their parents are saying.
“Yeah. Even when you think they’re looking at something, I swear that ear is literally trying its hardest to hear what Mommy and Daddy are saying.”
Brie agreed, recalling moments when her children suddenly reacted to conversations she never realized they could hear. That then left her having to explain subjects she hadn’t intended to bring up with them.
“I agree. So I’ve definitely been guilty of saying some stuff to Bryan, and they’re like, ‘Wait, what?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, you could hear me?’ And then I have to talk about it.”
For Brie, the takeaway is that parents now have a whole different set of problems to deal with that previous generations didn’t face in quite the same way. She believes families have to actively take whatever steps they can to keep their children protected.
“We all just have to take those different steps to protect our kids, and that’s what it is.”
Nikki pointed out just how different that reality is from what their own parents experienced. Smartphones and social media simply weren’t sitting in their hands when they were raising children.
“Yeah. My parents never had to because they never had a phone in their hand.”
Brie agreed that the technology isn’t going anywhere, which means parents have to become much more conscious about how it affects their families.
“Right. But it’s like we do, so we all just have to be more aware.”
Nikki boiled her advice down to educating yourself and paying attention. For her, parents need to understand what their children could be exposed to rather than simply assuming everything is fine.
“We do. Educate yourself. Be mindful.”
Brie, however, also believes parents shouldn’t have to handle the entire problem by themselves. She pointed toward other countries and questioned whether stronger protections could help families dealing with these issues.
“I just wish our country would help us with that. Like Australia, China, I think New Zealand too, right?”
Brie then brought up age restrictions for social media. She questioned whether other countries were already moving toward stricter rules for users under 16.
“I think other countries have jumped on board, but aren’t there, like, strict laws: 16 and older now for social media?”
Nikki said she supports stricter protections and also questioned how AI affects children. For her, there are plenty of problems in the current system that still need to be addressed.
“Yeah, we should have strict laws. I don’t know why we don’t. I don’t know why AI isn’t regulated with kids also. There’s a lot of s*** that’s f***** up.”
Brie ultimately brought the conversation back to the kind of account she believes targeted Buddy. If social media companies are making billions from their platforms, she thinks they should be doing a hell of a lot more to deal with bots and protect the people using them.
“Yeah, and they should be regulating bots. Like, hey, if you’re gonna make billions off an app, regulate it better to protect these kids and moms and dads and everyone from A to Z.”
One ugly Halloween post ended up changing the way Brie looks at sharing her family with millions of people. She can’t confirm who was behind the account that targeted Buddy, but she doesn’t need that answer to make her next move — her kids are staying off her social media, and she wants other parents thinking harder about what their own children could be exposed to online.
Do you think Brie Bella made the right decision to stop posting her children after what happened to Buddy, and should parents disable comments on their kids’ social media accounts? Let us know what you think in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
