Viewers around the world have been left reeling after the alleged dark side of YouTube kids’ gang The Squad was exposed in a chilling Netflix docuseries – as they ponder about the fate of its main star Piper Rockelle, now 17.
Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing hears from children who dropped out of the LA-based group and their mothers as they make horrific allegations of verbal and sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of Piper’s ‘momager’ Tiffany Smith.
While Smith denies all allegations against her, Piper does not speak in the documentary and has only made cryptic remarks about its release. However, she appears to maintain a good relationship with her mother and has previously defended her publicly.
But as the allegations surrounding The Squad are refuelled by the documentary’s release, viewers have made an uncomfortable realisation as Piper Rockelle approaches her 18th birthday.
Piper, who was just eight years old when she first appeared on YouTube, has recently collaborated with the Bop House – a plush villa in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which is home to several young OnlyFans models and has been likened to a modern-day Playboy Mansion.
In inflammatory clips posted to her TikTok page, Piper dances provocatively with the adult models, dressed in low cut tops and high-rise shorts, and mocks her viewers for ‘crying’ about the collaboration.
The shocking clips, posted from a visit Piper took to the Bop House in February, have circulated online again following the release of the Netflix series – as fans express concern for the young influencer’s welfare.
The Netflix docuseries, which is made up of three episodes, speaks to former members of The Squad including Sophie Fergi and Corinne Areeco.
After dropping out of the YouTube group to make content on their own platforms; or to leave the industry altogether, the young influencers allege Tiffany Smith, who was the mastermind behind The Squad, forced them to work around the clock and made inappropriate comments to them when they were between 12 and 15 years old.
They filed a lawsuit against the momager which she settled for $1.85 million last October but has vehemently denied all the allegations in the complaint that was filed in January 2022.
These included encouraging an 11-year-old girl to ‘try oral sex’ on Smith’s then-boyfriend Hunter Hill, who also starred in Piper’s staged videos as her older brother.
Corinne, who left the Squad in 2019, told The Los Angeles Times that Tiffany once asked her if she’d ever performed oral sex.
‘She was like, “I’ll show you, just try one on Hunter,”‘ Corinne recalled. ‘She said she was gonna pull his pants down. I was turning away and Piper was, like, “Mom, stop!”‘
Smith said Corrine’s accusation was ‘absolutely false’ in a statement to the paper.
In the 150-page lawsuit, Smith was also accused of rubbing one of the girls’ exposed thighs and ‘moving her hand toward her vagina, constantly spanking her buttocks and sticking her finger/poking her anus over clothing.’
That same alleged victim, identified as Claire Rocksmith, claimed that Tiffany would comment on how ‘big’ her breasts looked and attempt to squeeze them, and that on one occasion she tried to spit in the girl’s mouth.
The complainants described the disgraced stage mom as a ‘mean-spirited control freak’ who would often make uncomfortable and unwarranted comments about their bodies.
Hayden Haas, who was part of the group that sued Smith, claimed she asked him whether ‘his balls have dropped yet’ and ‘how long is it [referring to his penis]?’
Smith also allegedly told another member of Piper’s ‘Squad’ Sophie Fergi that she ‘had no boobs’ and ‘was so flat’.
Smith reportedly instructed Sophie’s mother Heather Nicholls, who styled the children, to make their clothes ‘s***tier’ and instructed the young boys to take their shirts off and said ‘sex sells’.
One of the lawsuit’s most disturbing claims involved the allegation that Smith would make vulgar and crude remarks in the voice of the family’s dead cat Lenny, including saying things like ‘I’m going to f*** you up the ass’ to the minors.
In a comment to the LA Times Tiffany Smith said: ‘Lenny, does not talk like that to kids.
‘I have no interest in kids, like, that’s disgusting to me. …There was no touching, there was no sexual contact.’
She also said she played physical games with the children in The Squad but maintained they were not sexual in any way.
The momager explained one of the games was called Cow Eat The Corn, which involved touching another person’s knee in a particular spot in a way that is ticklish.
Netflix viewers were left horrified after Corrine, now 17, revealed in Bad Influence how she witnessed Tiffany mail out Piper’s soiled underwear to a fan named ‘Meghan’ who is thought to actually be an anonymous adult male.
Recalling the incident, Corinne said: ‘Piper had an acting lesson, or voice lesson, and after we dropped Piper off, Tiffany was like “I have to go to the post office and drop off some things.”
‘She had a bag, and she pulled out what looked like Piper’s underwear, and I asked her, “Why are you shipping those out?”
‘And she told me that old men like to sniff them. I was confused. I was like, what is she talking about?’
Tiffany has previously claimed this allegation is ‘untrue’. She maintained that the plaintiffs in the lawsuit made up such allegations to try and harm her reputation.
As former members of The Squad speak out against alleged mistreatment by Smith in the documentary, fans have expressed concern over her daughter Piper’s career, which appears to remain managed by Smith.
Some have accused Smith of ‘soft launching’ her 17-year-old daughter’s OnlyFans career after already setting her up on a website called BrandArmy.
BrandArmy allows adult users to subscribe for exclusive content from content creators, including under-18-year-olds like Piper Rockelle. However unlike OnlyFans, the platform does not allow for sexual content.
Piper’s BrandArmy page, which is ‘parent managed’ according to the bio, promises different tiers of membership ranging from $25 per month to $100 per month.
Piper Platinum Plus, the most expensive tier, promises members a ‘full set’ of photos on the first day of every month, a free set to unlock on the user’s birthday, direct messages from Piper, access to live streams and the ability to request Piper wears custom outfits.
Following Piper’s Bop House appearance, fellow content creators took to TikTok to express their concerns about the influencer’s wellbeing.
One woman, who posts under the handle YouKnowNat, accused Tiffany Smith of preparing her daughter for a career on OnlyFans when she turns 18 in August.
Another creator, Kendall Kiper, referred to Piper’s BrandArmy page and noted the thumbnails that appear on the different tiers of membership fans an subscribe to.
Describing the outfits as ‘cosplay pyjama onesies’ she said: ‘I don’t understand how parents like this keep their children and the system fails them over and over again.’
Another TikTok creator, Kennady, spoke in a clip posted before Bad Influence was released, about why she felt uncomfortable with Piper Rockelle’s visit to the Bop House.
She said: ‘She is 17 and getting sexualised on the internet by adults. She knows this and the Bop House girls also know this.’
Kennady continued to suggest Piper may join the Bop House when she turns 18.
‘The content Piper has been making, it’s just showing off her body,’ she added.
Responding to criticism at the time, Piper took to her TikTok account to mock people who expressed concern about her involvement with the Bop House.
Dressed in a lacy vest top and shorts, she swished her hair and mimicked rubbing her eyes as she danced with the Bop House girls, accompanied by the caption: ‘How many times are they going to cry [about] me in the Bop House.’
As fans around the world express concern for Piper Rockelle while her mother Tiffany Smith continues to manage her career, the 17-year-old herself appears unfazed by the criticism directed at her.
But as alleged behind-the-scenes horrors from Piper’s early career are revealed, the influencer’s future remains unclear.
FEMAIL has contacted Tiffany Smith and Piper Rockelle for comment.
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