Piper Rockellle’s YouTube empire is closely examined in Netflix‘s newest documentary Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing. One of the masterminds behind the Squad was none other than her mother Tiffany Smith, and many fans want to know where she is after her family got sued.
After getting millions of views on YouTube, Piper Rockelle and her mother Tiffany Smith assembled a group of over a dozen tweens to live with them and to continuously make content. However, things weren’t as happy as they seemed on camera. It turns out that she was working with the tweens beyond their means and it was a very toxic environment.
In 2020 after several members left the Squad, eleven teenagers sued Rockwell and her mother filed a lawsuit complaining of exploitation and being “frequently subjected to an emotionally, physically and sometimes sexually abusive environment perpetrated by Piper’s mom.” They claimed that Tiffany Smith inflicted ongoing abuse such as shouting explicit comments, repeatedly touching the plaintiffs inappropriately, and encouraging them to be “sexy” and “sexually aggressive” in videos. Smith was also accused of not paying the plaintiffs for their contributions to The Squad’s YouTube videos.
Tiffany Smith and her daughter continue to deny the allegations to this day.
Is Tiffany Smith in jail?
Tiffany Smith never served time in jail. She’s currently living life away from the spotlight as her daughter still continues to be a content creator. Her Instagram is set to private.
The lawsuit was settled out of court in 2024, with the 11 teens receiving $1.85 million. “This whole case is based on lies that are driven by financial jealousy,” Smith told the Los Angeles Times. “Financial jealousy of a 15-year-old girl.”
She continued, “I don’t care. Make me look like a monster. I’m used to it. They’re using me. … But they’re hurting Piper.”
“I think that, so far, Tiffany has gotten off the hook,” Bad Influencer director Kief Davidson said to Tudum. “She’s a very smart businesswoman in a lot of ways and knows how to work the system. I just hope at the end of the day that this documentary becomes a real conversation piece for families and their kids to at least know what to look out for. And there are ways to do this safely. [If kids and parents continue to do this,] we have to find a way to put safeguards in place.”
“This lawsuit was never about money,” plaintiff Sophia F.’s mother, Heather Trimmel, said. “It was to make sure she couldn’t do what she did to me to another kid.”
