Bad Influence: Die Schattenseite von Kidfluencing

So the topic of this docu-series was very interesting, very eye opening, but the way it was executed felt wrong and honestly kind of strange. The parents seem to not really take much accountability for putting their children in these awful situations, the people they chose to interview seemed to be biased about the topic and seemed to still think it was okay to have your children plastered all over social media. This whole docu-series just seems like even more exploitation. I think they should have taken this topic a bit more seriously. I felt gross throughout the entire duration of this new Netflix "expose" which at this point just seems to be more click bait without any real consideration for the topic at hand.

"Bad Influence" is a grim 3-part Netflix docuseries about kidfluencers and the awful parents who monetize their childhoods for clicks. It's well-produced, but the whole thing feels exploitative, invasive, and downright icky. I'm grateful we don't have children; I can't imagine raising a kid in an age where everyone has the attention span of a gnat. AND where kids take life advice from someone like Piper Rockelle, who I only know because she did a cursed collab with the witless Katy Perry, who recently rode Bezos' penis rocket into space cosplay with Gayle King (who is now shocked, shocked!, by backlash). This series rightly lays blame on the momagers, the platforms, and the adult enablers, especially the legions of creepy men who follow these minors and collect photos like they're Pokémon cards. I may not be a digital native (I still remember our first VCR), but I do know this: nothing about this influencer economy feels safe, decent, or sane.

Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing is a three-part docu-series that centers on Piper Rockelle, a teen YouTuber who gained fame through videos featuring her group, "The Squad," managed by her mother, Tiffany Smith. While their content appeared lighthearted, former Squad members alleged there was a much darker side to what was going on. It wasn't my favorite Netflix documentary. Felt like it could have been better. It did bring up the reality that there needs to be better child labor laws for social media kid influencers. Because the one thing I kept saying to myself was, don't these kids go to school?!

I work in influencer marketing, so this was incredibly relevant for me. We have to be careful when we're working with family focused creators because we absolutely want to avoid situations like this where the kids are being manipulated and exploited.

This story goes even further than just financial and emotional exploitation sadly. I hope more stories start coming out about similar situations because I know they're out there, and the more we can do to protect children from this kind of mess the better. It really drops the facade of these kids all having fun and doing it on their own and shows you how manipulated and puppeted they were to make money for the mother. Gross!

This documentary offers a sobering look at the dark side of family content creation on YouTube, highlighting how easily people can become consumed by the pursuit of fame and money. It reveals the alarming greed of certain parents, the disturbing ease with which others look the other way, and the profound, lasting damage inflicted on the children involved. The emotional and psychological toll is both eye-opening and heartbreaking. If you're a parent, aunt, uncle, or have any teens in your life, this is an essential watch. It's also clear that the filmmakers intentionally left out some of the most horrific details-likely to protect the children-which makes what they do show all the more chilling and powerful.