4th-Gen Boy Group Idol Exposes HYBE’s “Evil” Trainee System

A fourth-generation boy group member recently went viral after exposing the extent of the difficulties trainees had to endure while participating in the popular K-Pop survival show I-LAND.

The idol in question is Hanbin, a member of Tempest. Hanbin was a contestant on the first season of I-LAND.

During a recent interview, Hanbin shared some lesser-known details about the lifestyle the contestants were made to follow. According to the idol, before I-LAND started airing, the trainees were kept extremely isolated from one another and weren’t allowed to even interact beyond greeting each other in the corridors. The alleged penalty for befriending a fellow contestant was to say goodbye to the show and return home.

In addition to this, all trainees were supposedly made to hide their identities, including their names, ages, and affiliated agencies, from everyone. However, the more absurd part of the protocol was the lodging system for the trainees. Each of them stayed with a host family in Korea and had to hide the fact that they were trainees. Hanbin suspected that the company had already created fake identities for the trainees and set up the accommodations accordingly.

Despite the precautions, some trainees seemingly ended up telling the truth to the host families. Whenever the agency learned of such cases, it moved the trainees to new homes. Hanbin speculated that this system was created to protect the personal history of all the contestants.

english translation of hanbin talking about belift’s trainee system when he trained there

🐈 before the program (iland) came out, the trainees weren’t allowed to meet up with one other. we were only allowed to pass by one another, greet each other at the corridors and that was… pic.twitter.com/Mv8cJPRMaQ

— ◕⩊◕ (@hubiszn) September 27, 2026

Hanbin’s revelation has been met with majorly divided reactions from netizens. It has made many former I-LAND contestant fans look back at the painful struggles their favorite idols went through, while some were alarmed by the cruelty of the system.

The foreign trainees had it the hardest before I-land. Ni-ki back then used to spend more time in the practice room than at the homestay because the homestay had no AC.

Because his family didn’t come from a privileged background, his mom even entered an online raffle to try to… pic.twitter.com/H1r2mcZEeZ

— K (rest) (@enhaonly01) September 28, 2026

this is actually quite evil and I dont think I’m exaggerating

— maple is feeling spooky (@shenlinedion) September 27, 2026

this makes taki’s mom’s message to Taki during that show all the more sad🥺 her 14 year old son was isolated from the rest of the world in a foreign country. She must’ve been so intensely worried and scared. They really made these kids go through psychological torture for a show pic.twitter.com/ZFemJkrAie

— mira (@ungkookk) September 28, 2026

knowing nobody and the only people they had were other kids their age. and even THAT was something belift wouldn’t let them have.

— nati ୨୧ (@retrokki) September 28, 2026

i can’t even imagine how hard it must have been for teenagers (if you could call it that cause they were mostly kids) go through this and then the fact that some of them had to go through iland just to get to (maybe) achieve their dreams. it’s truly inhumane.

— fran ★ (@enhastalamuerte) September 27, 2026

every single day I wake up and find a new traumatizing video about iland. What’s even the point of that shaytaan show tbh

— 𝐀˙⋆ (@mrsvamprikiiz) September 28, 2026