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For those who watched YouTuber Piper Rockelle and her friends grow up on social media, the world they inhabited seemed playfully idyllic. Known collectively as The Squad, the group staged elaborate pranks, navigated crushes, and frolicked throughout Los Angeles in search of fun, racking up billions of views — and millions of dollars — along the way. Virtually every step of Rockelle’s success was engineered by her mother, Tiffany Smith, who invited a number of aspiring child stars to join her daughter in front of the camera. But as time went on, several members of The Squad — as well as their parents — began to feel that something was seriously wrong.

Directed by Jenna Rosher and Kief Davidson and produced by Decoy Productions, Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing is a three-part investigative docuseries coming to Netflix on April 9. The series peels back the curtain to reveal...