Law&Crime Sidebar - 9 Shocking Claims Against Internet Superstar Piper Rockelle’s ‘Momager’

Episode Date: April 11, 2025

Seventeen-year-old social media celebrity Piper Rockelle has millions of fans on just about any platform you can think of. But with fame and money have come disturbing accusations and very real concerns about what’s going on behind-the-scenes. A civil complaint filed in California accused the teen’s mother, Tiffany Smith, of exploitation and abuse. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber has the most shocking accusations revealed in a new Netflix documentary.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Download the FREE Upside App at https://upside.app.link/lctakeover to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wonderry Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. What started off as a simple video of a little girl showing other kids how to make slime has exploded into a multi-million dollar content creation farm. Social media celebrity Piper Raquel has millions of fans on just about any platform you can think of, and she's only 17 years old. But with fame and money have come disturbing accusations. and very real concerns about what is going on behind the scenes.

We're going to take a look at some of the most shocking supposed revelations from a new Netflix documentary about Piper's rocket to stardom and the things her mom is allegedly done to get her there. Plus, how are the mother-daughter responding to this negative press? Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Anytime there's any sort of scandal involving a celebrity or high-profile figure you can expect.

the documentary to come out sooner rather than later, right? Seems to be pretty standard these days, and that is definitely true for who we're talking about right now. So we first told you last year, here on Sidebar, about the lawsuit against social media star Piper Raquel's media empire and the woman behind it all, her mom, Tiffany Smith. Now, a new Netflix documentary is digging into some of the most heinous allegations from Piper's co-stars over the last few years. Now, before we dive in, have to make something clear. Tiffany, Tiffany Smith. has always denied any wrongdoing and continues to do so. And by the way, she did not participate in this documentary, okay?

So, this three-part documentary or docu-series called Bad Influence, The Dark Side of Kid Fluencing, premiered on April 9th again on Netflix. And it takes a look at how we got here and has some dire warnings for parents when it comes to what some parts of content creation are really like. Tiffany finds people who want to be famous. She takes advantage of them. Things can get very muddy when kids are making an obscene amount of money. One of the co-directors of the series, Keith Davidson, told Yahoo Entertainment,

I have my own son who was 16 at the time, and I was unaware that there was so much money to be made with these kids and so many bad players potentially out there. I was intrigued first and foremost with the story because there were families that were part of the lawsuit that were all fighting back. The families that wound up taking part in our project were really willing to put themselves out there no matter what. According to the documentary, Piper got her first taste of the limelight doing child beauty pageants from a very young age. Then when she was eight or nine years old, she posted her first video, a tutorial on how to make fluffy slime. But now, almost a decade later, she boasts millions of followers across multiple social media platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram.

Her mom, her manager, Tiffany Smith, has been directing things from behind the camera since the beginning, even moving out to California from Georgia to pursue Piper's dream. of being a content creator. Now, part of Smith's strategy to pump up the popularity of Piper's YouTube channel was called the squad. Other content creators around the same age would join Piper's squad and would be featured in her videos. And in exchange, our understanding is, their own independent channels would gain more viewership by association and they could build their own kind of brands. It's a new avenue to get into the acting world. But what looks like fun and games in these videos is actually a lot of hard work. It's basically an all-day acting job day after day or maybe a presenting job. The more content that they could churn out, the more engagement they

could get, which meant more views, more subscribers, more revenue. And that leads back to needing even more and more and more content. It is a cycle, vicious cycle, cycle, nonetheless. Hey, I want to thank Upside for sponsoring today's Law and Crime YouTube Takeover. Now, Upside is a free app that gives you real cashback on Daily Essential. like gas, groceries, restaurants. Super easy to use. You just claim an offer in the app. You pay as usual using your card and you get paid. And this is actual real cashback.

You can use upside of places like Shell, Exxon, 711, Chipotle, just to name a few. So to find out how much you can earn, click the link in the description to download upside or scan the QR code on screen. And make sure to use our promo code LC takeover and you'll get an extra 25 cents back on every gallon on your first tank of gas. Now here's where another concerning part comes in. Some members of the squad allege that they wouldn't get break. they were doing very little schooling, and they barely slept.

So in 2022, lawyer Matthew Sarelson filed a lawsuit in California against Tiffany Smith, Hunter Hill, and Piper Raquel, Inc. Now, Hunter Hill was cast on Piper's channel as her older brother, but in real life, apparently, he was her mom Tiffany's much younger living boyfriend. He also shot and edited the videos and was considered what it seems to be their YouTube guru. Now, Smith was pulling in some serious, serious money here, upwards of $500,000 a month at times. There is a lot of money in the YouTube business. But according to co-stars and parents who spoke with the Netflix producers, if someone tried

to leave the squad, Smith would allegedly go scorched earth. Former squad members would be ostracized by their peers and blocked on social media. In fact, a video featured in the documentary showed Piper and remaining members of the squad going through and blocking their former friends in real time, explaining to the audience that they were gone and they weren't coming back. Now, the 2022 lawsuit was filed on behalf of 11 former squad members between the ages of 10 and 16 who collectively made more than 800 appearances on Piper's channel, which has more than 500 videos. The plaintiffs made 10 overarching claims. Some of those were related to labor and earnings. So, for example, intentional interference with contractual

relations or intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, but then you had other claims, other claims related to alleged mental, verbal, and even sexual abuse. Now, in one of the most jaw-dropping moments of the series, you got one squad member, Corinne Joy, and her mom, to be more specifically, reveals that her daughter, not even a teenager yet, had a shocking question for her. Corin came home and asked me why old men like to smell underwear. I it's one of those things there again where did you get this yeah so according to a story that was relayed by Corinne and her mom Tiffany was allegedly taking Corinne home one day and said she

needed to swing by the post office and when they got there Corinne alleges that she spotted an open box that Tiffany planned to ship out and that allegedly had piper's underwear inside so So when Corinne asked about it, according to her, Tiffany was apparently nonchalant in explaining that men online like to buy Piper's worn undergarments. According to interviews in the documentary, Tiffany allegedly tried to play it off like it was no big deal. And when Corinne's mom questioned her about it, Tiffany told her to stop being so dramatic. Now, Tiffany had since said that this never happened.

That while she did have a deal with Poshmark to sell Piper's clothing, she never sold any kind of undergarments. Now, that horrific accusation goes hand in hand with Piper. Piper's apparent progression from innocent tween to a much sultrier and even more seductive teenager. I can't believe I'm saying this, but given her age, what we're seeing online, I mean, if you go to Piper's pages now, they're really no longer filled with silly prank videos and social media challenges. Instead, much of her content centers around her relationship with a fellow cast member, and many of her posts are sexually coded, feature seductive dances, poses, or arguably that's what it looks like.

And that's content that you can find absolutely all over the internet. But Tiffany has been called out on multiple occasions for allowing her young daughter to take part in that kind of content and maybe pushing her to do more of it. Now, in the legal complaint that was filed out in California, the plaintiffs alleged, quote, Ms. Smith would often boast to plaintiffs and others about being the madam of YouTube and a pimp of YouTube and that she, quote, makes kitty porn. But Tiffany's allegedly inappropriate conduct wasn't just aimed at what the kids were doing in front of the county. No. Here's another allegation that behind the scenes, the plaintiffs, some of whom were featured in the documentary, they claim they were subjected to all sorts of unprofessional behavior. For example, the filing states, Ms. Smith also frequently pushed, pulled, struck Corin D. and yanked her hair while on and offset. Quote, during a thumbnail photo shoot for a YouTube video, Ms. Smith demanded that plaintiff Sophia F. take her clothes off and ultimately made it appear that Sophia F. was fully naked.

Ms. Smith also frequently told the male plaintiffs to take their shirts off for photos and videos because sex sells. For purposes of creating thumbnail photos for Piper's YouTube videos, Ms. Smith would frequently tell plaintiffs, including Piper, to make sexy kissy faces for thumbnails, to push their butts out, to suck their stomachs in, wear something sluttier, and would otherwise position plaintiff's bodies in explicitly and sexually suggestive positions. On another occasion, when plaintiff Aidan M asked Ms. Smith, for a thumbnail for his YouTube channel, Ms. Smith told Atam M that she wanted to kill herself,

and then when she's laying in a pool of her own blood, Aitm could post her dead body on Instagram. Wow. It's a pretty vile thing to allegedly say to a child. But it doesn't end there because the lawsuit claims that Tiffany allegedly made comments about the penis sizes of the young teen boys and the breast sizes of the young teen girls. A trans cast member claims that Tiffany asked them when they would be getting surgery.

And that same cast member says he was on a live stream with Tiffany drinking alcohol when Tiffany suddenly grabbed his face and kissed him without his consent. Another allegation has been made that Tiffany kissed her own daughter as well to quote, teach her how to kiss. And Tiffany is also accused of smacking the back sides of the teens while they were on set, allegedly grabbed one of the girls by the neck and threw her onto a bed. These are ostensibly her employees. They see her as a boss, an authority figure, their friend's mom, and probably another member of their family. And they were going through a critical time of development, both physically and emotionally, yet this is what they were allegedly dealing with for hours and hours every

day. Again, allegations. Tiffany denies it, but just something to be thinking about. Now, some squad members also alleged that the more popular Piper's channel became, the more outrageous the videos had to be to keep viewers engaged. And that led to some really ill-conceived so-called prank videos, one of which apparently featured Piper, pretending to have some sort of sort of medical emergency and being rushed away in a fake ambulance, but her co-stars weren't in on the joke. That's a disturbing allegation. Another featured in the documentary involved an actor dressed up as a police officer showing up at a video shoot and pretending to arrest one of the male content creators. So not only were all the other cast members on set, apparently unaware

that this would be happening, but the parents told the makers of the documentary that they also weren't aware of this stunt. And some of the cast members could be seen crying or breaking down at the thought of their friend being in trouble. Now, the legal complaint also claims that on numerous occasions, Ms. Smith would verbally harass, yell, and curse the plaintiffs if she felt that they were doing something wrong in the videos, which would oftentimes cause plaintiffs to break down and cry either on set or after they got home to their families. So a majority of the former squad members who were part of the 22 lawsuit had their own individual channels at the time, like I mentioned, but after deciding to no longer work with Piper and Tiffany, for myriad of reasons, they claim their

metrics tanked. And the plaintiffs claim that Hunter Hill was using his extensive knowledge of the inner workings of YouTube's algorithms to hurt the plaintiff's channels when they decided to leave the squad. So here are a few of the ways they claim that happened, quote, utilizing bots to quickly subscribe and unsubscribe to a plaintiff's YouTube channels, which results in YouTube not recommending that user's channel. Embedding plaintiff's videos on porn sites, which causes viewers to come in from those sites onto plaintiff's YouTube channels, which makes YouTube's algorithm think that plaintiffs' videos are sexual or inappropriate and thus restricts them for viewing. Using software or virtual assistance from other countries such as India and

Russia and Pakistan to leave derogatory comments on plaintiff's YouTube videos and live chats, which negatively affects plaintiffs. And there had been reporting that when this lawsuit was filed, each of the plaintiffs was seeking $2 million in damages, which would have come into a total of $22 million. But in the fall of 2024, Attorney Matthew Sarrelson announced a settlement was reached of $1.85 million to be split up among all the plaintiffs. And we asked Sarleson about the settlement during an interview last year. There was some talk earlier in the case about this $22 million number. That was a pie in the sky number that was thrown out there. I'm not even sure how it ended up getting into the news or the press. But eventually it did make its way to the press.

Why did the case settle for $1.85 million? That's a good question. And there's a couple of moving parts to how cases subtle. One of them is insurance. The allegations in this case, because these were intentional tort claims, battery claims, sexual sort claims, there's no insurance for that.

So this is all out of pocket money. And frankly, a lot of the plaintiffs just wanted to get past where we were. They wanted to not have to deal with a trial. We had a trial day coming up in December. It was going to be an eight to 10 week trial. It's a very long time to put 11 kids in a courtroom with their moms and their doctors.

and testify again and again about what occurred. So it basically was, look, this was never about the money. 1.85 being paid by Tiffany, by the mom, fine. Let's take the money. Let's move on. They're all just more concentrated on future events. By the way, Tiffany filed a $30 million counter suit, claiming that the former cast members were trying to extort her, but that lawsuit was dropped.

Now, once the squad's lawsuit was settled, Tiffany released a statement to People magazine stating, Obviously, we didn't do anything that was alleged, but sadly, money is a big motivator for certain personalities in this world. We made the decision to put this behind us because, honestly, prolonged litigation would be even more harmful and painful to everyone involved, which includes kids. Piper is a minor and has already been through a great deal of unnecessary and harmful scrutiny, so we prioritized mental health and made the decision to put this behind us and focus on the next phase of her career. And after the docu series dropped, Piper shared this statement with USA Today, saying, quote, honestly, I just want to move on from all of this because it's really painful to deal with every day. And not surprisingly, my mental health has suffered more than anyone knows. My mom did not do any of those things that they said, and I'll stand by my mom to the end.

Now again, serious allegations, but given that settlement and also given these comments from Tiffany and Piper, who knows what really happened. And I will tell you also, Piper has been a little bit more cagey about things on social media, though. She's made several posts that seem to allude to the claims made in the documentary and the fact that many of her former friends chose to participate in it. Because alongside one video on Instagram's threads, Piper posted, coming from someone that's lost a lot of friends, it's really not that deep. And another, she wrote simply, what's done is done with a broken heart emoji. And a third, the video includes text of an apparent question from a viewer. Will you still be my friend if I watch the doc? And the caption reads, hell no.

Piper also posted a video seemingly addressing the rumors, but I got to say in true influencer style, it's also a promotion video. The video features an AI app that Piper promotes on her channel. People love to spread rumors, and I was hoping you could help me kind of figure out a way to go about this time. So first off, you're right. So many people deal with rumors, and it's seriously the worst.

I think step one is figuring out if clearing your name is worth it. Is this rumor actually affecting your life? This rumor unfortunately has kind of hurt my life. in a lot of ways, but I've just kept going as much as I possibly can. Is it worth trying to tell the trick to everyone that believes this rumor, or should I just rush it off? Honestly, if the rumor's really messing with your life, it's worth clearing the air. But pick your battles. Maybe focus on the people whose opinions actually matter to you.

Do you think that karma is real and people who do bad things are going to have it come back to them? Not going to lie, I do kind of believe in karma. Like, not necessarily in a magical way, but more like, if you thrive on hurting people, it tends to catch up with you. People notice that energy eventually, you know? So these wild stories about what it was like working with Piper. Raquel, Tiffany Smith, Hunter Hill, the squad. They're almost too numerous to count. And now that this documentary has shot up to the top of the Netflix charts, it wouldn't surprise me if more content creators felt empowered to speak up about their experiences, not just this channel, but across

the industry. So look, only time will tell. These are only allegations. They have been refuted. They have been argued against. Hard to make out what's going on. But we'll keep a careful eye and what happens next. It's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please, subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time.