Netflix's Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing brings together a pool of interviewees, which includes teen influencers and their families, as they detail the dangers of the world of content creation among kids.
The new three-part docu-series focuses on the claims of exploitation and abuse against the mom of Piper Rockelle, a young social media superstar. The discussion would then lead to the consequences of the unregulated world of "kidfluencing."
Netflix's Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing Cast Guide: Every Main Interviewee
Patience Rock Smith
Patience Rock Smith is Tiffany's older sister and Piper Rockelle's aunt. She talked about Tiffany's life, her first business, and the fact that Tiffany raised Piper alone without her biological dad.
Patience thinks Tiffany's drive for Piper's success was to show Piper's dad that "she was worth something and that's missing out on her life."
She also revealed that Piper's success in pageants led Tiffany to explore how it would benefit her daughter's image on social media.
Ashley Rock Smith
Ashley Rock Smith, Patience's wife, joins the conversation to discuss Piper's relationship with her mother, Tiffany.
After the mother-daughter duo moved to Los Angeles, she expressed concern after they found out that a boy named Hunter was posing as Piper's brother for content.
Taylor Lorenz
Taylor Lorenz appears in Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing to share the history of how kids began creating online content and the dangers behind it because it is unregulated.
She is the author of the book, Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet.
Brandon Stewart
As the content strategist and CEO of Brandon Studios, Brandon Stewart chimes in on the conversation about the risks and dangers of kidfluencing.
Brandon describes Piper as someone who found a knack for drawing people in that just felt so authentic. He points out that Tiffany built a "very viable brand on normalcy from a kid's point of view."
The more relevant Piper's brand became, Brandon says that Tiffany found an opportunity to make it bigger.
Corinne Joy
Instagram: @itscorinnejoy
Corinne Joy is a former squad member and backup dancer of Piper Rockelle.
As an aspiring dancer and actress, Corinne forged a strong bond with Piper during their time together in Dance Twins.
Steevy Areeco
Steevy Areeco is the mother of Corinne, one of the backup dancers of Piper Rockelle.
Given that they live relatively close to one another, Steevy and Tiffany bonded over the closeness of their daughters, Piper and Corinne.
Raegan Beast
Instagram: @raeganbeast
Raegan Beast is an influencer and advocate who began his content creation journey by doing lip-sync videos on Musical.ly. His success then led him to collaborate with Piper Rockelle.
In the Netflix docuseries, Raegan comes forward to share his experiences with Tiffany Smith and how she unexpectedly kissed him during a livestream when he was 17 years old.
After the incident, he decided to part ways with the team and forge his own path.
Sophie Fergi
Instagram: @sophiefergi
Another former squad member who joined the pool of interviewees was Sophie Fergi.
Sophie first met Piper when they co-starred in one of Brat's online videos, Mani. After collaborating on YouTube, they started to grow closer and eventually became good friends.
She talked about one incident during the filming of Mani when Tiffany went mad at the set because she felt that they were cutting Piper's lines and screen time.
Sophie is now one of the hosts of the podcast series Girl Talk, which discusses topics related to teenage girls, such as social media, insecurities, and hygiene.
Heather Nichole
Heather Nichole is Sophie's mother. She discussed how her daughter was gently forced into creating a social media account due to her involvement in the Brat show Mani.
Claire
Claire is Piper's cousin by marriage and a former squad member. She is Ashley's daughter.
Reese
Reese is also Piper's cousin, who initially couldn't believe that she was related to the famous social media star. Reese is Claire's sister and Ashley's daughter.
Sawyer Sharbino
Instagram: @sawyersharbino
As a famous content creator, Sawyer Sharbino rose to prominence due to his funny videos and charismatic personality. As a former squad member, he collaborated with Piper for a year.
In the three-part docuseries, Sawyer discusses how he was uncomfortable filming some content he deemed inappropriate under Tiffany Smith and Hunter Hill's direction, such as showing more skin on thumbnails and acting maturely.
This is in addition to the long hours of filming, which led to a lack of time for studying.
Angela Sharbino
Angela Sharbino, Sawyer's mother, openly supports her son's content creation at a young age.
She believes that her son is growing, and he benefits from being able to get views himself, get brand deals, and become a full-fledged content creator.
Dr. Karen North
Dr. Karen North, a clinical professor of communication at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, joins the conversation in Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing.
Dr. North explains how YouTube pays content creators, detailing the benefits of ad revenues, brand deals, and partnerships.
Jeremiah D. Graham
Jeremiah D. Graham is an attorney who shared his thoughts about the unsafe working conditions of kids doing online content.
He notes that Tiffany and Hunter believed they were outside the arena where labor laws were applied.
Jenn Bryant
Jenn Bryant is Walker's mother. Walker was a newly recruited squad member who acted as Piper's boyfriend after Gavin left the team.
Johna Ramirez
John Ramirez, Jentzen's mother, appeared in the docu-series to discuss her son's experience as a squad member. Jentzen was paired with Sophie to act as her boyfriend for content.
Initially, Johna liked the content between her son and Sophie, but it escalated to being inappropriate, which caused some concern.
Ava Michelle
Instagram: @ava.michelle
Ava Michelle, an actress and influencer best known for her role in Netflix's Tall Girl, expressed her thoughts on the influencer issue.
She expressed concern about the videos of these kids getting married to their crushes, noting, "They haven't lived the life to even understand what that means."
Ava also talked about having an amplified audience on social media, pointing out that "it is really, really hard to distinguish what relationships are real, what friendships are real, and what your true self actually looks like."
Sarah Adams
Sarah Adams of Moms.Uncharted appeared in Episode 2 to discuss the dangers of child predators and their prevalence on social media.
Katherine Blunt
As a journalist from The Wall Street Journal, Katherine Blunt investigates child safety issues on Meta platforms.
Blunt's findings revealed that young girls who are content creators have very large numbers of adult men as followers.
Amber Cain
Amber Cain, Connor's mother, joins the conversation as she details how her son, Connor, joined the group during the peak of COVID-19.
Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing premiered on Netflix on April 9.
