Directed by Jenna Rosher and Kief Davidson, Bad influence: the dark side of Kidfluencing It is a three-part docuseries on how Tiffany Smith, the mother of the hyperpopular YouTube Piper Rockelle, tok-walking of the children who became part of Piper’s “team”. Many of the team members accused Smith of verbal, physical and sexual abuse, as well as retaining compensation for using their similarities in the videos that millions of views obtained. The accusations came out in a 2022 bomb lawsuit that Smith established last fall.
Opening shot: Video of Piper Rockelle and his “squad”.
The yeast: In docuseries, the directors interview Piper’s aunt (and Tiffany’s sister) Patience Rock Smith and his stepdaughter, who appeared in Piper’s videos. They also talk to team members and a couple of members of the members. Experts such as journalist Taylor Lorenz are also interviewed.
The first episode paints the image of how Smith, a single mother, first entered her outgoing daughter Piper in beauty competitions when she was little, and then began to explore the possibilities of social networks. A 10 -year -old Piper first appeared in musical.ly, the precursor of Tiktok, then his own YouTube channel, which quickly increased his audience.
Smith and Piper then moved from Georgia to Los Angeles, where Smith hired Hunter Hill, 20, to play Piper’s “older brother” on the channel. He also filmed and edited the videos, and soon blessed dating Smith. Soon, he hired other children to be Piper’s “squad”, with the stipulation that they deliver their YouTube accounts to Hill, which helped them grow their individual channels.
But what some of the mothers of the team members discovered is that children would film for more than 12 hours per day and repel. There was no teacher on the set; Sometimes they not only had time to eat. All these violated the laws in force in the twentieth century to protect the well -being of children’s actors. But, according to Smith, those did not apply to YouTube videos, and these children were not employed.
What programs will you remember? Bad influence: the dark side of Kidfluencing It feels like a combination of two recent docuseries about family vloggers – An update about our family and Devil in the family: Ruby Franke’s fall – And the actor of children Docuseries Quiet in the set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.
OUR TOMA: The More We Watch Docuseries Obout Influencers, Specially ont and have pushy in orders THENYY AND THEN THUSHY. Content to feed the beast. At some point, the curtain retires to show that apparently friendly parents are abusive ogres and children have lost all sense of their childhood.
Davidson and Rosher are building the same story here, but is based on an unstable base, since Smith was never criminally investigated by any of the charges that were collected in the demand, the demand was resolved. In addition, Smith, Piper and Hill refused to be interviewed for the series.
It is not that we are taking Smith’s side; There is probably a certain degree of truth for what the former team members and their parents said in their interviews. At least, it seemed that Smith exploded to the members of the squad and was exactly the most affectionate mother for Piper.
But this is not really a story about a crazy mother who receives her best revenge, Givven that Piper’s Channel, now, 17, was active at the end of 2024, and her videos still get views in the six to six. She is still publishing in Tiktok and Instagram. Therefore, it is not as if there is a fall of grace for Piper or Smith.
Sex and skin: None in the first episode.
Separation shot: A granulated video of Smith forchible kissing Regan Beast, a friend of Hunter’s.
Star Star: We will give this to Sophie Fergi, who with Piper on the set of a web comedy in which they starred and made close friends. Piper Position became a member of the team and anyone moved with his mother to a huge Hollywood Hills house that Smith shared with a couple of squadrons families. He seemed to have an account about Smith’s emotional problems when almost the first time with them.
The majority of the pilot line: We wanted to see a little more about why Smith decided that Piper needed a fictional “older brother” for his YouTube channel.
Our call: Transmit it. While it is a bit unilateral, Bad influence: the dark side of Kidfluencing It is still an interesting look at the doubtful world of Kidfluencers, and how adults take advantage of children who are videos to have fun, just although the channel is a rating in millions of spectators and dollars.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) Write about food, entertainment, parenting and technology, but he is not necessary: he is a television addict. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Slate, Salon, Rollingstone.com” Vanityfair.comFast Company and other places.
