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Tiffany Smith is the mother of Piper Rockelle, who received major fame on social media after she started her YouTube channel back in 2016. Piper initially started with Music.ly and quickly grew a major following on the platform at just eight years old.
Tiffany Smith soon became her daughter's manager, and she began inviting young creators to collaborate with Piper. Soon, they created a group of content creators named "The Squad", which began receiving millions of views and subscribers. However, during the time between 2017 to 2021, multiple members began quitting the group.
Reportedly, the parents of the children accused Tiffany Smith of child labour violations and abuse. As reported by People, it was in 2022 when 11 squad members filed a $22 million legal lawsuit against Tiffany Smith. Eventually, the lawsuit was settled in 2024, with 11 children receiving a sum of $1.85 million each.
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Netflix's docuseries titled Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing, explores the complete story of Tiffany Smith and Piper Rockelle. The three-part docuseries was released on April 9, 2025.
What is the story of Tiffany Smith and Piper Rockelle?
As reported in The Los Angeles Times, Tiffany Smith raised Piper Rockelle as a single mother in the city of Canton, Georgia. Smith said that raising Piper gave a sense of purpose to her life.
Piper began participating in pageant competitions from the age of three. However, by the age of seven, Tiffany Smith had encouraged her daughter to make videos in an app called Musical.ly. As reported by People, Piper Rockelle started her account in May 2016 and soon began to gather a massive following.
Reportedly, in November 2016, when she went to a meet-and-greet event in L.A., they were approached by a social media manager. The manager encouraged Piper to start a YouTube channel.
As per Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing, Piper soon began posting videos of her daily life, which included going up on a hike, getting a pet turtle, traveling to Hollywood, and more.
She also made appearances in several websies, including Chicken Girls, from the production house named Brat. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, Piper Rockelle was making a sum of more than $600,000 every month as her revenue.
In 2017, a group of young content creators collaborated with Piper Rockelle and created a team called The Squad. As reported by Tudum, their videos included pranks, discussions about crushes, and fun vlogs on the streets of Los Angeles.
As per People, it was in 2017 when Tiffany Smith and Piper Rockelle moved to Los Angeles. Piper's boyfriend Hunter Hill, from Wyoming, also moved in with them. He was primarily responsible for the editing most of her content.
The child abuse lawsuit against Tiffany Smith
As per Tudum, it was in 2018 when Piper Rockelle started appearing in videos of The Squad. The creators would collaborate and promote their content across their individual social media platforms.
As mentioned in Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing, the primary members of the squad included Gavin Magnus, Sawyer Sharbino, Hayden Haaa, Sophie Fergi, Corinne Joy, Claire RockSmith, Jentzen Ramirez, and Symonne Harrison.
Soon, the young creators moved in with Piper and Tiffany. Their original purpose was to post multiple videos in a day for the channel. However, the children soon found it challenging to stay in Tiffany's manipulative environment at the residence.
As reported by Los Angeles Times, Hunter Hill managed their YouTube channels and took 10 percent of their generated revenue. Reportedly, Tiffany Smith exposed the kids to a very strict schedule to produce the most content out of them.
As per People, members of the group claimed that they would shoot for more than 12 hours every day to produce almost 15 films. Most of this shooting happened without food, breaks, or schooling. Tiffany Smith denied providing any compensation to the children for their extra hours.
As reported by the Los Angeles Times, in early April 2020, the former members of the Squad started contacting law enforcement officers. As per People, they got in touch with the Federals, the LAPD, the Department of Children and Family Services, and the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.
By September 2021, they began discussing legal options with the attorneys against Tiffany for the violations of child labour laws. It was in January 2022 when 11 of the former members of The Squad filed a legal lawsuit against Tiffany Smith.
They claimed that Tiffany exposed them to an extremely exhausting work environment. All of the minors revealed that they were exposed to emotional, verbal, physical, and sometimes s*xual abuse.
Reportedly, Tiffany forced the squad members to make se*ually explicit comments and forced them to make videos se*ually aggressive. As per People, each member of the group sought $2 million each for the damages caused by Tiffany Smith.
Initially, Tiffany responded to the report by filing a lawsuit of her own. As per Business Insider, the lawsuit claimed that the parents of the children wanted to defame Tiffany Smith and Piper Rockelle. However, by October 2022, the lawsuit was declined.
According to People, after three years of legal battle, the lawsuit filed against Tiffany finally concluded in October 2024. As reported by People, the legal lawsuit came to a settlement with 11 of the Squad members, who received $ 1.85 million each.
As reported by People, after the legal battle and the accusations, Piper Rockelle's YouTube channel was demonetized. As per court documents, she lost between $ 300,000 to $ 500,000 every month. Currently, Piper Rockelle's career is based on her YouTube channel. As of April 10, 2025, her YouTube channel has 12.1 million subscribers.
Check out our other articles to learn more details about Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing on Netflix.
