Was Tiffany Smith ever sent to prison? Explained

YouTuber Piper Rockelle's mother, Tiffany Smith, was sued by eleven teen content creators who appeared on Piper's YouTube channel. The plaintiffs' lawyers reportedly said that the lawsuit ended in October 2024 after Tiffany and the creators reached a settlement of $1.85 million.

NBC reported that the teenage creators accused 43-year-old Tiffany Smith of intentionally inflicting emotional distress while holding a position of care and control. They claimed that this was when they worked and produced content with Rockelle for her YouTube channel. According to the lawsuit, the content creators allegedly suffered physical and emotional injuries from harassment, m*lestation, and abuse.

Several former members of Piper Rockelle's YouTube team, like Sophie Fergie, Corinne Joy, and Regan Beast, filed a lawsuit against Tiffany Smith in 2022.

According to the People, these cases were settled with a settlement of $1.85 million in the year 2024. However, there is no public record of Tiffany Smith ever going to jail.

Netflix's new documentary, Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing, follows the case against Tiffany Smith. The three-part docuseries, which was released on April 9, 2025, looked at the allegations against YouTuber Piper Rockelle's mother.

As per US Weekly, the documentary stated that Tiffany Smith has been accused of serious charges, including misbehavior and s*xual assault involving minor children.

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Tiffany Smith and the child content creation case explored

As per Tudum, when she began her career on YouTube, Piper Rockelle needed to create consistent content to grow her following. Thus, to maintain consistency, her mother, Tiffany, came up with a plan and invited Sophie Fergie and her mother to her home in Los Angeles. Tiffany gradually invited more teenage content creators to film the videos together.

As the creators and their parents began spending more time with Tiffany, they reported that Tiffany's behavior began changing and became strange and disturbing. The minors also claimed that they did not get full wages for their work.

Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing co-creator Kief Davidson spoke to Tudum about the reason behind making the series. He said that they wanted to "tell the story" as it exposed the "real human cost behind the glossy façade of internet fame."

"I think [this] story is a real microcosm of a much bigger issue, which is the exploitation of child influencers in a very unregulated world of social media," Davidson noted.

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Tiffany Smith alleges extortion in response to abuse claims

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times in December 2022, Smith claimed that she didn't consider herself the owner or employer of the children when they made videos with Piper. She added that she also obtained the necessary permits to work with minors.

In 2023, Smith filed a $30 million lawsuit against the children’s mothers, alleging that they had conspired to extort money by making false s*xual abuse allegations. However, she withdrew the suit herself before the mothers could respond.

The children, who are the complainants in the case, had each sought compensation of about $2 million from Smith and her then-boyfriend, Hunter Hill.

The settlement listed Hunter Hill as one of the defendants. According to NBC, he was reportedly the director and editor of Piper Rockelle's YouTube channel.

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The case highlighted serious legal and ethical issues in the world of child content creation on social media. It also brought attention to the lack of regulation and accountability in influencer-driven entertainment involving minors.

However, there is no information suggesting that Tiffany Smith has ever been sent to jail.

To learn more about this case, watch Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing, available on Netflix.