On her Youtube profile picture, Piper Rockelle sports a candy pink t-shirt with her image and a touch of gloss on her lips.
The 15-year-old teenager, who has 10 million subscribers on her channel, has built her reputation on her Paris Hilton-style marshmallow universe and polished videos where she and her band, nicknamed the "Squad", show off at through joyful challenges: dancing to
bubble gum
pop, playing the game of the bottle, multiplying the antics.
A watered-down world that collapsed on December 18 thanks to a lengthy investigation by the
Los Angeles Times
, revealing the sordid underside of Piper Rockelle Inc. Smith, involving the mother of the mother of the star teenager, Tiffany Smith ( 41 years).
Read alsoNorman Thavaud, Léo Grasset… The #MeToo wave is sweeping over YouTube
The very serious American media has thus revealed the complaints of 11 teenagers formerly from Piper Rockelle's troupe, having collaborated with the daughter and the mother between 2017 and 2021. They denounce disastrous filming conditions, the exploitation of children from the company Piper Rockelle Inc. Smith, which was then generating 4.2 to 7.5 million dollars per year (3.8 to 6.9 million euros), but also a toxic environment and sexual assaults committed by the mother.
Non-compliance with the law
For the
Los Angeles Times,
this legal scandal would reveal the gray areas of a "largely unregulated world of social networks, where children spend long hours creating videos and branded content".
Indeed, the 11 plaintiffs all indicate that the filming did not comply with California law.
The latter, who turned inside the house of Piper Rockelle and her mother, would have notably worked nearly twelve hours a day (against eight legally), "without breaks or meals".
In addition, numerous court documents - emails and recordings - prove that Tiffany Smith's company would not have paid teenagers for certain videos, and moreover did not have a work permit to employ these minors.
"I have always tried to respect the laws and I have never considered myself an" employer "when children come together voluntarily to collaborate in the production of videos", justified Tiffany Smith with the media.
Read also“He liked the fact that I looked young”: the alleged victims of Norman Thavaud speak
“She dragged me into her room”
Worse, several members of the squad accuse the
businesswoman
of sexual assault.
One of them, who was 17 at the time, reports how the teenager's mother would have one day kissed him by force: "Tiffany grabbed my face and started rolling me a shovel.
Piper grabbed her by the head and pulled her back to get her away.
She went back to kissing me.
She grabbed me by the waist and tried to pull my underwear down.
Then she took me to her room,” he explains.
Words supported by other testimonies, such as that of Tiffany Smith's nieces, who report particularly disturbing and evocative attacks on the latter's disturbed personality.
Cousins of Piper Rockelle, they indeed declare that their aunt imitated the meows of her dead cat, Lenny, while she abused them.
For the rest, all the plaintiffs detail an asphyxiating atmosphere on the set, between vulgar remarks and incitement to take sexy poses in front of the cameras.
Several have also assured that the mother of Piper Rockelle was selling underwear and photos of her own daughter to a man online, without his consent.
In video, Asia Argento would have paid a man who accused him of sexual assault
Sordid details revealed during the investigation into the company's filming conditions, which sparked the first complaints.
“Parents of plaintiffs said they realized the seriousness of the alleged sexual misconduct during a pivotal meeting with attorneys in September 2021,” reports the
Los Angeles Times
.
A meeting that took the turn of a confession: ""And that's when it became 'Me too! Oh my God, me too. The children literally couldn't speak fast enough as they realized that they all had the same stories,” reads the survey.
Read alsoThe #MeToo doc
among doctors
: sexual abuse is also catching up with the medical world
A conspiracy motivated by jealousy
Since the filing of the complaint, made in unison by the 11 alleged victims, YouTube has demonetized Piper Rockelle's channel, which continues to make videos despite everything.
The teenagers' lawyers are claiming at least $22 million in damages from Piper Rockelle Inc. To defend herself, Tiffany Smith, supported by her daughter and denying all these accusations, simply denounced to the media a plot, motivated, according to her, by “financial jealousy”.
While the investigation is still ongoing, no trial is currently scheduled for 2023.