The True Story Of Netflix’s ‘Bad Influence: The Dark Side Of Kidfluencing’ And Piper Rockelle’s Career

NetflixThe new docuseries, Bad influence: The dark side of children’s flowExplore exploitation and lack of protection embedded in children’s internet star, focused on Mega Kid Influencer Piper Rockelle and the squad This brought the Internet for storm from 2017 to 2021. Directed by her mother and director, Tiffany Smith, and Hunter Hill, Smith’s boyfriend, who shot and edited most of the content, Piper and his “workforce” dragged billions of millions of views and millions of dollars.

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But not everyone enjoyed the riches, and as they were posed in fame, some allegedly suffered psychological and sexual abuse of Smith, as detailed in a demand of 2022 filed by former members of the workforce.

Here is the true story behind it Bad influence: The dark side of children’s flow.

Piper Rockelle joined YouTube in 2016 with the hope of turning into actor

According to WeatherRockelle joined YouTube in 2016 and often published videos of his life in Los Angeles as an aspiring actor. He would regularly share videos of his interpretation and spend with friends. As the views of these videos increased, so did the Piper audience, who quickly demanded more content, Netflix Tudum reported.

To keep up with demand, Smith decided to invite Sophie Fergi and her mother to move with her and her daughter to her home in Los Angeles. Later he added younger people to the mixture. Most were aspiring actors and Smith told them and their families that the movement would help them to expose and move forward in their career.

“You have to remember it, many of these children joined the workforce during Covid,” said Tudum, co-director of Docuseries, Jenna Rosher. “And many of these kids were actors. They were not in a regular school situation, they were mostly school -school. The workforce provided this amazing community and an opportunity to meet friends and make videos together.”

Smith often pushed the template boundaries for viral content

At first, the videos were seemingly innocent, but as the weather progressed, Smith pushed the template to the lengths with which they were not comfortable. Some former members of the workforce admitted to Docuseries that Smith often pushed for viral content.

In a clip included in the series, Smith is daring to a young participant to lick a pavement smoothie in the Walk of Fame in Hollywood. The ex -membership of the squad, Sawyer Sharbino, also reminded him that he was one of the other stars of his birthday to raise drama.

“Tiffany wanted to absolutely make more questionable content for more visualizations and please,” he said.

A video saw that Rockelle sought to break his leg, have a stroke and be taken by a false ambulance, he reported time. Another incident included an actor hired to pretend to be a police officer and arrest one of the teenagers, leaving them in tears.

“People were not informed that this was a joke, parents were not informed that this was a joke,” Fergi said in the series.

Father Johna Ramirez said he was “traumatizing” seeing his 13 -year -old son, Jentzen, cried hysterically on the set when the false police officer scared the children.

“There are so many videos that made us uncomfortable,” Fergi said, adding that his time in Piper’s workforce was “some of the most difficult years of my life and I am only 12 years old.”

According to Tudum, several minors who worked with Smith said they were uncomfortable with the way they talked about sexual subjects. Some even accused the Momager of improperly playing them. The parents of the squad members realized Smith’s behavior, but when they talked about their concerns, they said that Smith quickly took retaliation. According to them, Smith would isolate them from the group and demand that the other members stop interacting with them.

The workforce is not supposed to be properly paid for their job

In addition to supporting a allegedly toxic work environment that often abused its children’s workers, many former members of the workforce have stated that they were not properly compensated for their work. The co -director Kief Davidson said that what happened to them is a symptom of a more significant problem in the Kidfluencer industry.

“I think (this story) is a real microcosm of a much greater theme, which is the exploitation of infant children in a very unregulated world of social media,” Davidson told Tudum. “We wanted to tell the story because it exposes the real human cost on the brilliant facade of the reputation of the Internet.”

Eleven former members of the squad filed a lawsuit against Smith and Hill

In January 2022, 11 former members of the squad filed a lawsuit against Smith and Hill, accusing them of being “often subject to an emotionally, physically and sexually abusive environment perpetrated by Ms. Smith and turned off during the shooting sessions for Rockelle’s YouTube Channel” Los Angeles Times reported.

Demand said that although Rockelle won up to $ 625,000 a month, other members of the squad would work without food or breaks, and no schooling was not provided. A 2022 investigation into the Los Angeles Times squad also uncovered other disturbing incidents, such as Smith, allegedly offering to show an 11-year-old girl how to make oral sex and Rockelle’s underwear sent Rockelle to men.

Piper Rockelle and Tiffany Smith have denied claims

Neither Rockelle nor her mother and Hill participated in the docuseries, but have played the claims of the workforce over the years, reported time. In February, Rockelle, now 17, shared a Tiktok video Alluding to his desire to tell his side of the story when he turns 18 in August.