Pink said a 14-year-old bikini-wearing YouTuber is being exploited. Internet critics have been sounding the alarm for years.
- Pink's accused 14-year-old YouTuber Piper Rockelle's parents of exploitation.
- The callout follows years of YouTube videos about Rockelle's mother, Tiffany.
- Representatives for the Rockelle family refuted the allegations of exploitation.
A fight over teen influencers and exploitation has gone mainstream, with celebrities weighing in, but it originally started with YouTube criticism.
On Sunday, the singer Pink alleged in a tweet that the parents of 14-year-old YouTuber Piper Rockelle "exploited" her by taking a photo of her wearing a bikini. Courtney Stodden, a former model who has said they were groomed as a child, echoed Pink's sentiment.
Rockelle and her mother Tiffany both refuted Pink's accusation in a statement to Insider.
Piper has over 8 million subscribers on YouTube, where she is known for acting in prank and challenge videos. A few of her video thumbnails show her wearing bathing suits or being "caught" in a compromising position.
The thumbnail for one video, entitled "MY BOYFRIEND WALKED IN ON ME," showed the 14-year-old clutching a towel against her body while a boy looks off in the other direction, with a bold red "CENSORED" label in the top right of the image.
On Thursday, YouTube removed that thumbnail and two others because they violated the platform's child safety policy, a YouTube spokesperson told Insider.
It's not the first time critics have suggested that Piper's content is too lewd for a minor. The controversy follows numerous viral YouTube videos alleging that Piper needs to be saved from the adults surrounding her, particularly her mother. In most of Piper's videos, she is not the one filming, which has led some critics to allege that Piper isn't uploading the videos or coming up with the video ideas herself.
The bio of Piper's Instagram page states that her Instagram account is managed by her "family."
YouTube critics, pointing to Piper's suggestive content, expressed concern about the extensive history of child predators engaging with children's YouTube content and leaving inappropriate remarks about the children in the comment section.
Piper's team pushed back on the criticism in a statement to Insider, saying "it's preposterous" to suggest "that Tiffany and Piper have any control over who watches their channel any more than Disney."
Viral videos trying to 'save' Piper date back to at least 2019
Videos trying to "save" Piper date back to at least 2019, when she was between 11 and 12 years old. At the time, her content included challenges and reaction-style videos where people would rate different outfits she tried on.
The video that appears to have spawned the trend, "Piper Rockelle Needs To Be Saved," was uploaded in August 2019 and has amassed over 100,000 views. The video's description says it was originally uploaded by a different channel that has since deleted the video.
The 9-minute video pulled clips from several of Piper's YouTube videos, explaining how the creator believed each segment demonstrated child exploitation or manipulation.
The creator criticized a 2019 video in which Piper roleplayed as a pregnant woman, including a scene where she was shown appearing to be asleep on a bed. "Yeah how about just not filming little kids sleeping in their beds," the video maker wrote in an on-screen caption.
In another caption, the creator alleged that Piper was being forced into child labor based only on the perceived adult themes of the video content.
The trend picked up traction in 2021
In 2021, several YouTube videos alleging Tiffany exploits her daughter have gained traction on the platform.
The drama account LtMayhem made a video titled "PIPER ROCKELLE'S MOM MUST BE STOPPED" in May that collected over 600,000 views. In the video, the creator alleged that "the adults in [Piper's] life" are exploiting Piper by placing "increasingly sexualized" thumbnails on her videos so they reel in more clicks and ad revenue.
The video was available to watch until Wednesday afternoon when it was taken down by a copyright claim by Samuel Tall, who appears to work for Studio71, a media growth company that signed Piper in 2019, according to Yahoo, and has the "exclusive license" to several of Piper's songs on Spotify.
Other recent videos include The Dad Channel Podcast's "The Exploitation of Piper Rockelle," which criticized Tiffany's parenting.
The video, which was uploaded on August 13, has over 27,000 views.
Another video, "The Exploitation of Child Influencers by Their Own Parents," alleged there are "clear sexual and adult themes" on Piper's channel, citing videos like one where boys rated different bikinis that Piper tried on and video titles like one that mentions the lingerie retailer Victoria's Secret. The video, created by a vlog and commentary influencer, has over 147,000 views.
The outcry surrounding Tiffany's follows a long history of parents reportedly taking advantage of their children to create YouTube content.
In 2017, the duo behind the YouTube channel DaddyOFive was sentenced to five years of probation for child neglect after allegedly screaming at and breaking their childrens' toys for "prank" videos, according to The Guardian. Their sentence was later reduced to probation without judgment in 2019, according to WUSA.
Another mom alleged Tiffany created a 'toxic' work situation
One catalyst for the video trend appears to be a 2019 Instagram Live stream where Theresa Magnus criticized Piper's mother, Tiffany, for creating a "toxic" work situation.
Theresa is the mother of Gavin Magnus, a 14-year-old musician and social media celebrity who has frequently collaborated with Piper. Gavin also accused Tiffany of being "abusive" and fostering a "toxic" environment in a 2019 YouTube video where he addressed why he had stopped making videos with Piper.
In the Instagram Live stream, Theresa criticized Tiffany for allegedly acting "highly, highly controlling" during times when the two children were collaborating on videos.
Insider could not immediately verify when the Instagram Live stream was posted. It was screen-recorded by a viewer and posted on YouTube in July 2019.
The 38-minute video, which has over 60,000 views, showed Theresa accusing Tiffany of sending "hundreds of texts" to Gavin, who was then 12, and giving him "severe stress and anxiety."
In Gavin's 2019 video, "The TRUTH about our Break Up...," he alleged his work relationship with Tiffany became "abusive and obsessive" over time, with Tiffany allegedly yelling at the kids and sending him texts and DMs saying "inappropriate things... call[ing] me names that 12-year-olds shouldn't be called." He also alleged that Tiffany offered him a vape.
Theresa told Insider via a representative that she had "lashed out in anger" and that she "regret[s] making those comments." She added that they have "since patched up" the relationship.
"She is a great mother to her child and I respect and support her fully," she said.