Netflix's latest docuseries, Bad Influence: The Dark side of Kidfluencing, follows the rise of a young influencer named Piper Rockelle and the dramatic downfall of her "squad" which lead to a lawsuit and some pretty serious accusations.
For many people, Netflix's announcement for Bad Influence is the first time they heard about Piper Rockelle and her squad, so here's everything you need to know about the new Netflix docuseries.
- Who is Bad Influence about?
- What were the allegations in Piper Rockelle's mother's lawsuit?
- How to watch Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing
Who is Bad Influence about?
YouTube influencers cover a wide variety of demographics and types of content and in the past several years, the number of younger influencers targeting a younger demographic has grown significantly.
Piper Rockelle and her friend group, often referred to as her "squad" in videos with her, became one of the biggest channels on YouTube after she started posing videos at just 8 years old.
With the guidance of her mother, Tiffany Smith, and her mother's boyfriend, Hunter Hill, Piper Rockelle racked up over 10 million followers and billions of views for her scripted vlogs and challenge videos.
According to sources that have investigated Piper Rockelle and her mother, the young YouTube star was amassing upwards of half a million dollars per month in ad revenue from her videos at her peak. Her peak came around 2017 when she started including her friend group in her videos, known as "The Squad."
Along with appearing in videos on Piper Rockelle's channel, members of The Squad would cross-promote their own channels and social media accounts in order to grow a network of kidfluencers and hopeful young actors, musicians, and dancers.
What were the allegations in Piper Rockelle's mother's lawsuit?
Despite everything looking happy and fun in Piper Rockelle's videos with The Squad, tensions and toxicity were brewing under the surface without any of her millions of fans knowing.
In 2021, this all came to a head when 11 members of The Squad filed a lawsuit against Tiffany Smith, alleging that they were forced to work without being schooled on set, weren't given breaks for meals or rest time, and even alleged that there was sexual abuse happening behind the scenes. In 2022, Tiffany Smith alleged that the lawsuit stemmed from jealousy on behalf of the other members of The Squad who resented that Piper Rockelle was making so much money.
In the lawsuit, the 11 plaintiffs were originally seeking a total of $22 million in damages, but the lawsuit was settled out of court, which their legal representation said was the best possible outcome as it didn't force "the kids and their parents and their friends and their doctors to testify about things" and they were able to move on.
Another issue with the lawsuit was that while California has strict child labor laws in the world of entertainment, content creators on platforms like YouTube are a grey area in terms of what constitutes as "work" for the young stars. In the years since the lawsuit, the state has passed a law forcing family vloggers that feature younger kids in their content to place a portion of their earnings in a trust for the kids featured in their content.
Tiffany Smith adamantly denied all the allegations of abuse and toxic workplace environments, but the trailer for Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing promises to shed light on the lawsuit and the allegations of bad behavior going on behind the scenes on Piper Rockelle's channel.
How to watch Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing
Netflix's Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing will premiere on Netflix on April 9 and is a three-part docuseries. The trailer promises to examine all the dark, scandalous details of Piper Rockelle's rise to fame, her mother's alleged bad behavior behind the scenes, and the scary truth of being a young influencer on the internet in the modern era.
Check out the trailer below and watch Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing, streaming exclusively on Netflix April 9.