"Just a prank, bro", or serious child abuse?

[Ryotknife]

Dont get me wrong, ive been pranked by my parents and have had other friends and family prank me (and i prank them back), but that clearly crossed a line. That video made me extremely uncomfortable.

Makes me glad i only had to suffer having the heat turned off in my room and see how long it takes for me to find out or helping "test" the electrical fence.

 

[Erttheking]

Lot of symptoms of an abusive household. Ganging up on one person, getting the kids to get involved (because it makes the abuse less likely to target them) blaming them for the abuse or having a problem for the abuse, it's just...Jesus fucking Christ. Well, I'm glad that someone with over a million subscribers is calling them out.

EDIT: AND IT FUCKING GETS WORSE!

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/531/011/240/return-emma-and-cody-home/

 

[Pseudonym]

If you have to say that something is just a prank, somebody evidently doesn't find your pranks funny at all which is a good sign you should stop. Besides that, I don't like the idea of parents putting their children on youtube at all. You put somebody very young into a situation where an enormous number of people might see them and form preconceptions about them. You don't know how that will impact them later down the line. For fucks sake, use your cat for easy youtube views, not your children.

Maybe I watch too much anime so I'm ingrained with the idea of social services being completely useless.

They aren't useless so much as restrained by the law and the reality of the situation. You can't remove someone's kid just because they're an ass, because all that's going to happen to that kid is that they will be taken away from the only environment they know and put in care, which is also a bad environment. The outcomes of long term care are not great for kids who go through it (although some of that may be due to the abuse which put them in care).

There's a certain perspective here which I can understand you not having if you grew up in a good home. Like, what's happening in this video is emotionally abusive, but there are things which are worse, so much worse, than emotional abuse, and child protection services see those things all the time. The fact that they've gone through an inspection and "passed" may seem bad to you, but it means that if the kid ends up in hospital or comes into school with bruises people are going to ask questions, and those questions could save his life. The stakes and standards child protection services have to work with are different to yours, because compared to the kinds of things they have to deal with this is.. well.. it's not the worst.

But again, that doesn't mean it's not important to report this kind of emotional neglect when you see it, because even if it's unlikely to result in action on its own, it can help to identify children who are at risk of more serious abuse and build up a body of evidence if it ever does escalate.

Besides that, I think a lot of what child protective services can do are rather drastic measures. I don't really know what options they have but I imagine that if they decide to do something, at the very least, it involves a government agency telling people how to raise their children, and at worst it involves removing children from their parents alltogether which might not help a child depending on where they end up after that. Don't get me, wrong, in some cases they should absolutely take such measures but they should also exercise some restraint in what they do.

 

[Randomosity]

And now the classic excuse. "It's fake" They might as well have said that it is a social experiment. I don't buy this for a second. This is damage control. Not only that, but they are also trying to shift the blame on Defranco saying that it is all his fault that this happened. Those kids deserve better than these two sorry excuses for parents. It makes me sick.

 

[Nature Guardian]

Just one thing that, as usual, nobody brings up: everybody is looking at the family doing this abuse, and nobody is looking at the thousands people subscribing.

Humanity should stop looking at Hitler and look at the millions who followed him or let him do what he did. We should stop looking at Trump and look at the people who voted him. We should stop looking at offensive youtube channels and look at the many viewers they got.

Then we can take a look at the real problem.

 

[NPC009]

Lot of symptoms of an abusive household. Ganging up on one person, getting the kids to get involved (because it makes the abuse less likely to target them) blaming them for the abuse or having a problem for the abuse, it's just...Jesus fucking Christ. Well, I'm glad that someone with over a million subscribers is calling them out.

EDIT: AND IT FUCKING GETS WORSE!

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/531/011/240/return-emma-and-cody-home/

That really hurts to watch. It does look like Cody has some special needs, and kids like that, even more than regular kids, need a stable environment and structure in their daily life. Instead his parents are bullying him and posting it all over the net. And in the videos in which he's being punished (why would any sane parent post that on Youtube?!), he doesn't seem to be that difficult. He's actually very articulate about his feelings, needs and reasons he does/doesn't want to do certain things, but his father is completely unwilling to listen to anything Cody says. They systematically destroying the poor kid.

 

[Worgen]

And now the classic excuse. "It's fake" They might as well have said that it is a social experiment. I don't buy this for a second. This is damage control. Not only that, but they are also trying to shift the blame on Defranco saying that it is all his fault that this happened. Those kids deserve better than these two sorry excuses for parents. It makes me sick.

Wait, so did the state finally do something over these shit heads? I'd watch the vid but I want to prank them with a knife to the gut enough as it is.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

Ffffff...

Corporal punishment, what horse shit. I don't doubt that he moved there just because of that. Makes it easy as hell to get away with that stuff that way. Their little crying apology vid was a load of garbage too, blaming everyone else for what they did. Classic abusive deflection.

Seeing them treat their kid with special needs this way is insane. You can't treat someone like that in this way, they'll have so much more trouble understanding. Just... god dammit. This better go all the way, this can't just fizzle out with no proper result

 

[Lieju]

Yeah, it's child abuse.
Even if it'd be fake, these kids are too young to consent to acting as a part of this. I'd say monetizing your kids is iffy at best even if it'd be just something like a performance. Putting your kids at physical risk and mimicking abuse? No.

The whole thing just disgust me. The father seems like one of those pricks who never got the shit kicked out of them in high school and therefore never learned a bit of humbleness.

Ah, yes, more violence, that's just what we need. You do realize the people defending this sort of behaviour do it with the same argument? 'The kids need to be taught to be humble through violence etc'

Can't say being kicked the shit out of me in school made me 'humble'. More distrustful and bitter.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

You know, sometimes I feel like YouTube is that weird site where the part I watch is a wholesome place full of people who talk about video games and movies for hours and offer interesting insights and the other part is that bizarre nightmarish hellscape where people do terrible and degrading things to themselves and others and display it in video clips with titles full of uppercase letters, exclamation marks and text emoticons, not to mention garishly colourful thumbnails.

What else is there to say? Get those kids the fuck out of there, for heavens sake. That man pushed his son into a shelf on camera, what more do you need?

 

[Level 7 Dragon]

This is horrendeous, how isn't this classified as child abuse? I especially feel sorry for the smaller kid, since he doesn't seem to be having any of it.

On a side note, I think it would be better for everybody if prank culture dissapeared forever. Remember when pranks stood for clever magic tricks and illusions that forced adults to act in an unexpected manner, but then they would laugh it off ones it became obvious that no hard came of it? I am just angry at prank shows and all those copycats that they have given birth to.

 

[MrBoBo]

"and in one particularly abhorrent video they convince their five children that they are under attack in a Purge-esque scenario, arming them with baseball bats and other weaponry in order to defend their home."

LOL! Actually pretty funny.

Terrible!

But funny.

 

[Randomosity]

One topic in this thread that I'd like to comment on is kids involvement in YouTube channels being exploitative and abusive. While in this particular channel is clearly exploitative and abusive, I don't think that simply including a child in a video is bad parenting.

Off the top of my head I can think of at least four channels that include children (sometimes often, others it is only occasionally) those channels would be...

What's Inside: Essentially a father, son project of cutting things open and seeing what is inside.

Mark Rober: A NASA engineer who makes all kinds of cool stuff and does science expiraments. Frequently has his nieces and nephews on the channel to participate in his antics.

Smarter Every Day: A science channel that explores various topics and has amazing slow motion footage. Destin's kids are occasionally in the videos.

Grant Thompson: A DIY channel with various projects such as metal casting, good molds, rockets, and more. Occasionally has his kids participate.

None of those channels listed above would be what I consider exploitative and abusive. I think YouTube can be a good thing, but it can also be an outlet for terrible things. I think a few criteria need to be considered before putting a child on YouTube.

Home life: Does the kid have a stable home life? If they don't have a safety net at home, they shouldn't be on YouTube.

Parent(s)/Guardian(s): Does the kid have well adjusted and caring guardians that are more concerned for the wellbeing of the child rather than the success of the YouTube channel.

Maturity: Does the child have a high enough level of maturity to be put into the entertainment field. This one is tricky because every child is different.

Interested: Is the child legitimately interested in being on Camera? If the kid doesn't wish to be filmed, then don't film them. End of story.

Content: What kind of channel is it? A prank channel is not a good setting for kids. It isn't great for adults either, really. But something like a DIY channel, science, sports, or even a family lets play are all things that could be a positive force for a kid, and a good opportunity for family bonding.

I'd say Fatherofive bunked up almost all of those criteria (except maturity. Cody seems remarkably mature for his age. Though he has frequently spoke up about the fact that he doesn't want to be filmed. Doesn't matter how mature the kid is, if they don't wish to be on camera, that decision should be respected.)

At the end of the day I just hope that these kids end up safe and find stability.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

I've got to say, it's refreshing to see absolutely everyone here in agreement on an issue. This is pretty unambiguously abuse. It's horrifying watching that this whole family bully their youngest child. I really hope that this situation gets the attention it needs, and this kid gets some help.

 

[BreakfastMan]

I've got to say, it's refreshing to see absolutely everyone here in agreement on an issue. This is pretty unambiguously abuse. It's horrifying watching that this whole family bully their youngest child. I really hope that this situation gets the attention it needs, and this kid gets some help.

I am just waiting for the one edgelord to come in and say "no, this is actually funny and good and there is nothing wrong with it". There is always that one person...

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Yeah, it's child abuse.
Even if it'd be fake, these kids are too young to consent to acting as a part of this. I'd say monetizing your kids is iffy at best even if it'd be just something like a performance. Putting your kids at physical risk and mimicking abuse? No.

The whole thing just disgust me. The father seems like one of those pricks who never got the shit kicked out of them in high school and therefore never learned a bit of humbleness.

Ah, yes, more violence, that's just what we need. You do realize the people defending this sort of behaviour do it with the same argument? 'The kids need to be taught to be humble through violence etc'

Can't say being kicked the shit out of me in school made me 'humble'. More distrustful and bitter.

Well thats you. But having been treated like shit myself it encourages me to at least try to be nicer to people because I didn't like the way it felt to me.

 

[Randomosity]

Ya know, thinking about this even more, let's all assume for a moment that they are telling the truth and this is all fake. Let's assume this is all staged and just a joke... Who in the fuck thinks this shit up and decided to make it into a YouTube video? Like who honestly thinks "We're gonna pretend like we're yelling at this kid until he cries, and push him into a bookshelf. Comedy gold right there."

That isn't even dark humor, that is just pretending that cruelty is a joke. I've come to the conclusion that whether or not the videos are real or fake doesn't even matter. They are bad people. Child abuse isn't funny, even if it is staged.

Also to clarify, I don't personally believe that it is fake. I think that was an excuse for them to try and damage control. This post was simply to point out that even IF it is staged, it is still super fucked up.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

I've got to say, it's refreshing to see absolutely everyone here in agreement on an issue. This is pretty unambiguously abuse. It's horrifying watching that this whole family bully their youngest child. I really hope that this situation gets the attention it needs, and this kid gets some help.

I am just waiting for the one edgelord to come in and say "no, this is actually funny and good and there is nothing wrong with it". There is always that one person...

Well, these guys apparently have a following. I don't want to watch any of their videos, but there's people who find it both funny, and not abusive. I was expecting to see at least one or two people in support.

Apparently the youtube channel has put out an apology video. I'm not sure how much I believe they're being genuine, given some odd phrases in it. But they claim it's all "Fake".

 

[Lieju]

Can't say being kicked the shit out of me in school made me 'humble'. More distrustful and bitter.

Well thats you. But having been treated like shit myself it encourages me to at least try to be nicer to people because I didn't like the way it felt to me.

Oh I try to be nice to people but I'm constantly hampered by the major trust issues etc being treated like shit caused.
And in any case, you were the person saying violence should have happened to prevent THIS violence... It's still wishing for violence, how is that 'nice'?
Violence I've suffered certainly shaped me and my sense of justice, it DID have positive sides to it but I have faith that those positives could have been achieved without, you know, people beating me up, stealing and ruining my stuff, spitting on me and dropping things at me on stair cases, amongst other things.
I certainly am not going 'well more people should be treated like that in school'