Eleven teenage content creators have settled a lawsuit with the mother of a YouTube star who they accused of abuse and exploitation. The January 2022 lawsuit from members of Piper Rockelle's "Piper Squad," who created content for Rockelle's popular YouTube channel between 2017 and 2020 without being paid, helped turn a spotlight on "the lucrative and largely unregulated world of child YouTube stardom, which some have likened to the Wild West," per NBC News. But it wasn't just a matter of compensation. The Squad members said they suffered harassment, molestation, abuse, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and retaliation at the hands of Rockelle's mother, Tiffany Smith, who oversaw content production.
Minors as young as nine were "scripted to have sort of fake boyfriends and fake girlfriends and to interact with these other kids" for an audience of millions, plaintiffs' attorney Matt Sarelson told Law & Crime. The teens made a host of disturbing claims, including that Smith, 43, mailed off her daughter's used underwear, saying "old men like to smell this stuff"; offered "hemp brownies to plaintiffs who unwittingly consumed them"; encouraged the teens to try oral sex; talked with them about sex toys; and showed one minor a porn website, per People and Law & Crime. She and her boyfriend, Hunter Hill, named as the channel's director and editor, were also accused of sabotaging the teens' own YouTube channels in retaliation after they tried to break from the Squad.
"My youth was stripped away at a very young age because of Tiffany," said plaintiff Sophia F., adding the lawsuit was meant "to make sure she couldn't do what she did to me to another kid." The plaintiffs initially sought $2 million each in damages. However, the settlement is $1.85 million total. The terms are confidential, meaning it's unclear how much individual content creators will receive. "I want to publicly commend these 11 kids," Sarelson said, per Law & Crime. "They're smart and brave" but "what they went through was grotesque." Smith, who allegedly called herself a "madam" or "pimp" of YouTube, denied wrongdoing as part of the settlement announced Tuesday, per NBC. (More YouTube stories.)