Where Is Piper Rockelle Now? What We Know About the Subject of 'Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing'

This article contains discussions of sexual harassment and abuse towards children. For support, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at (800) 656-4673, or visit rainn.org.

Netflix's new true-crime docuseries Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing unveils the hidden manipulation behind one of the Internet's most successful child influencers. Piper Rockelle, a now 17-year-old social media personality, grew up on the internet, as she and her momager, Tiffany Smith, amassed millions of followers and millions of dollars through their viral content, which featured other dedicated kid collaborators known as Piper's Squad.

Despite playing the parts of happy teenagers doing challenges and falling in love in videos, behind the scenes, the Squad was allegedly exploited and harassed by the adults in charge, leading to a multimillion-dollar lawsuit. Now that Bad Influence has arrived on Netflix, highlighting the kids' ordeal, many viewers wonder what Piper has been up to since the docuseries' events. Read on to learn about Piper Rockelle and Tiffany Smith and where they are now after Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing.

Who is Piper Rockelle?

Piper Rockelle was born in Georgia in August 2007 to her then-26-year-old single mother, Tiffany Smith. Tiffany homeschooled Piper and began enrolling her in pageants at 3-years-old. At 8, Piper began posting social media content. She started out on Musical.ly, the short-form video app that eventually became TikTok. Within a few years, she also had successful accounts on YouTube and Instagram, with Tiffany managing her social media empire.

In 2017, Piper and Tiffany moved to L.A. as their success propelled them to more opportunities. At this time, Tiffany began working closely with Hunter Hill, a video editor and creative director. He was introduced on-camera as Piper's older brother, but, in reality, he was Tiffany's younger boyfriend. As is common with influencers, Piper began collaborating frequently with other YouTubers around her age. From 2017 to 2020, Tiffany formalized the frequent collabs into a content creation group called The Squad, which racked millions of views off their challenge and prank content.

Outside of social media, Piper pursued acting in the web series Mani and Chicken Girls, and she has released music since 2019. The influencer also appeared on the short-lived reality show Dance Twins, which appears to have been scrubbed from the internet. By 2022, Piper had 10 million YouTube subscribers and earned up to $625,000 per month from her channel, according to The Los Angeles Times.

What happened to Piper Rockelle's Squad?

From 2017 to 2020, Piper Rockelle's Squad featured nearly a dozen members. Some key members included Sophie Fergi, Hayden Haas, Symonne Harrison, Corinne Joy, Gavin Magnus, Jentzen Ramirez, Claire RockSmith, and Sawyer Sharbino.

According to Bad Influence, The Squad allegedly filmed multiple videos per day produced by Tiffany and Hunter, in which the kids participated in viral challenges, performed dances, and did over-the-top pranks. One of the content's consistent themes was dating and relationships, where the teens would be matched up in couples and staged romantic scenarios, including kissing.

In the docuseries, several former members of The Squad allege that they were manipulated and exploited by Tiffany and Hunter, including being pulled into uncomfortable sexual situations both on and off camera. Their parents also allege that they were not allowed to be around their kids during filming, and they only heard about the incidents after the fact. Eventually, several Squad families distanced themselves from Tiffany, at which point they were allegedly iced out by the rest of The Squad and retaliated against by Tiffany and Hunter.

Did Piper Rockelle's mother, Tiffany Smith, go to jail?

In January 2022, 11 former members of The Squad filed a lawsuit against Tiffany and Hunter, accusing them of "emotional, verbal, physical, and at times, sexual abuse." According to PEOPLE, the teens "also allege[d] they were unpaid for their contributions though it's unclear if they were ever promised payment." When the kids left The Squad, the complaint claims, Tiffany and Hunter allegedly "conspired to 'intentionally interfere with and sabotage' their 'individual YouTube channels' by using bots and false reporting/flagging to drive down their views 'thereby significantly diminishing' their own revenue."

The lawsuit also included several instances of "inappropriate, offensive and abusive treatment" mentioned in the documentary, including Tiffany asking the teens about their sex life, "shouting obscene and sexually graphic phrases" at them, making comments about their genitalia, and "encouraging" them to be "sexy" and "sexually aggressive" in videos. It also included the claim that Tiffany allegedly mailed "Piper's soiled training bras and panties" to a man who liked to "sniff" them.

Each former Squad member involved in the claim asked for around $2 million in damages (over $22 million total) from the defendants, including Tiffany and Hunter as individuals and Piper Rockwell Inc.

Speaking to NBC News, Ashley Anne-Rock Smith, mother of two plaintiffs, explained, "I just want peace back with my kids. I want all predators who hurt young kids to be brought to justice. I also hope we move the needle on these platforms that are allowing this."

Tiffany has steadfastly denied all allegations made by former members of The Squad since the initial lawsuit was filed. According to NBC News, she also countersued for $30 million in July 2022, claiming that the teens's mothers were trying to extort her, but she dropped her case the following October. Trial proceedings for the case began in April 2023.

In October 2024, the lawsuit was settled "without any admission of liability or the validity or lack thereof of any claims or defenses," per PEOPLE. The $1.85 million settlement was meant to be split among the 11 defendants.

Tiffany addressed the settlement in a statement to PEOPLE before the release of Bad Influence. "Obviously, we didn’t do anything that was alleged, but sadly, money is a big motivator for certain personalities in this world," she told the outlet. "We made the decision to put this behind us because honestly, prolonged litigation would be even more harmful and painful to everyone involved."

Speaking to Tudum, Bad Influence co-director Kief Davidson said of the fallout, "I think that, so far, Tiffany has gotten off the hook. 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."

Where is Piper Rockelle now?

Though Tiffany faced online backlash after the suit was filed, Piper's social media empire has largely gone unaffected. In February 2022, YouTube revealed that it had demonetized the Piper Rockwell channel and removed it from its Partner Program after Insider reached out to request comment on the allegations against Tiffany.

Piper is now 17-years-old and still works as a social media influencer. At the time of Bad Influence's April 2025 premiere, she has 6 million Instagram followers, 12.1 million YouTube subscribers, and 14.9 million TikTok followers. She is also involved with the subscription-style creator platform Brand Army, and she has recently received backlash for collaborating with adult creators at the influencer collective Bop House. Piper is still seemingly managed and directed by Tiffany and Hunter.

In a March 2025 statement to PEOPLE, Piper describes the legal ordeal as "extremely painful and, honestly, hard to understand. Not just because of the people making ridiculous claims about me and my family—but also how the media has been."

"It's been incredibly hard because the media and social media have been relentless and so hurtful, without understanding or even trying to understand the truth," she included. "It's become impossible to even look at my phone or do normal, day-to-day things. It's been so incredibly painful. Thank goodness for my family. And thank goodness this is finally behind us."