Hey everybody, happy Thursday.
Now, today's video is going to be a little bit different.
I had a hole other video planned
But, in the last 3 to 4 days
some things have come out on YouTube
that I think are really important for us to talk about as a community.
The way that I found out about the issue I'm gonna
talk about is through Phil Defranco.
I'll link in the description the videos I'm talking about,
his channel... Because I really think it's important
that we are imformed about everything.
I'm gonna tell you what I know about the situation,
I'll weight it on it (??)
And... then, hopefully we can have a conversation
in the comments below :)
3 or 4 days ago
Phil Defranco put out a video where he talked about
a YouTube channel "DaddyOFive"
Now, DaddyOFive is a family vlogs/prank channel
I'm not subscribed , I don't watch the videos
However, I have watched some of the videos
in relation to this topic
And the reason it felt brought this up is because
there was a video that they posted about a week ago,
show.. like showing them emotionally and physically
abusing their children. It was called "The Invisible INK Prank"
What I sound the video, which has since been removed
because of all of the hate that they'd been getting
is emotional abuse.
They... The "prank" starts out really... nice.
It sounds like a funny prank:
They bought invisible ink (as?) parents,
they're gonna squirt it on the floor of one of their children's room, his name is Cody,
they're gonna have him come up and "Explain yourself, what did you do?! you spilled this ink.
However that's not at all how they interact with their children.
It is frightening to me. It's actually...was hard for me to watch the video
because they scream and curse at their children
throughout the house:
you hear the mother upstairs, you're downstairs (the view from the father when he's filming)
screaming obscenities to their child Cody asking him what the fu*k he's done.
So the video progresses from there and Cody becomes obviously extremely upset,
saying that he didn't do it, he becomes extremely red, the face, he starts crying and bawling
And...
Saying he doesn't know what happened.
Upon looking at other videos on their channel...
It's easy to see
instances of emotional abuse that are similar to this as well as physical abuse
where the father will push Cody into things
Um... The children are encouraged to fight one another,
there is actually another video they posted that I believe is still up at this time
where there is a "game" that he has the children play where they try to flip the water bottle and have it land
AND IF YOU DON'T...
One of your siblings is gonna slap you...
and not just slap you like ("smooth slap"), slap you in the face, and it shows
one of the... his sons, he tells him: "you know, it's not okay to slap women, but this is your sister so it's fine
and he progresses to hit her and she cries
and...
overall it's just... it... it's just extremely upsetting to me.
And the parents have recently come out saying that all the videos are fake.
And wether or not we really believe that,
I personally can't look at the faces of these children crying, being upset...
and say that they're acting.
Children that young don't understand.
I don't think that they are developmentally aware enough to be able to act in that fashion
nor do I think it's ever okay to encourage your children to hit one another.
And so, I think that those are kinda the components that I'm working with.
And obviously can disagree and say: "Hey Kati, you can't take a joke"
But I don't think abuse is a joking matter
I...think that pemotional abuse and physical abuse is something
that happends to adults, to elders, to children and it's always
important for us to speak up and it's always important for them to know that they can get help.
And so, now I wanna switch gears and speak from a profesional standpoint
and there some few...there are a few key components that I really want to touch on
and the first is that they in another video, and I know I'm jumping around but there's just so much
they ("""""???) there's so much content
There's a video that they talk about how their son Cody, again, he seems to be one who gets picked on the most...
that he... the whole family is going to Disney World and he is left out
because he had smeared poop everywhere.
And I know a lot of people, we would think: "Oh, that's really embarrassing," or
"Oh, you know why are the parents saying this"
And obviously, all of that is kinda part of the emotional abuse.
If you watch my all video about emotional abuse, I talk about how
parents can utilise information they have about us,
or people in our life in general, not just parents, but they don't have any boundaries for our information
and nothing that we have or something that's happened to us, nothing's kept private
and then that alone is a component of emotional abuse and so,
they're not only doing that, by sharing with their audience of over 750,000 subscribers
this embarrassing and personal information about Cody but then they're saying that because he did that
he can't go to Disney World.
When children smeare feces on the wall or play with their feces it's a sign
most commonly of PTSD and or physical or sexual abuse.
And it a lot of ways it's used as a way to like control our body because everything else feels out of control,
we can feel really hopeless and helpless, like we have nothing else that we can possibly do
and so children will sometimes not allow themselves to poop, they hold it in so much that they become
horribly constipated that they have to go to the doctor, they would play twith their feces,
they may wet their bed, they may
do a lot of different things that you can kinda see is like a way to control our body when we feel like nothing else
is controllable.
And the second thing that kinda piqued my interest or, you know my spidey senses tingled
was when all of this hate came down on them and people were upset and saying you know:
"this video is terrible", " I can't believe this is the way you parent your children"...
They released a set of "apologies".
And one was like a video kind of apology, and then they released a statement and then they later
had an interview on another youtuber's poadcast, where they talked about it.
And in these 3 scenarios, never did they actuallly apologised for their actions, there was no "I'm sorry"
that, you know, "I'm sorry that I came across this way", "This wasn't what we intended",
"We are going to our parenting classes or were therapy". There was none of that.
And all of these apologies, like the video apology and even the video that came out I think
yesterday or the day before they show no emotion.
And they talk about how it's other people's fault that this has happened to them,
they even blame Phil Defranco outright saying that it's his fault that all this hate is coming on to them.
So they never take ownership over their action towars their children:
that they curse, that they push them, that they encourage physical violence,
that they themselves are violent with their children. Also, they act like it's no big deal that they've already been
investigated by CPS. All of this is treated as if it's not an issue
And that is what makes it so disgusting to me.
The main reason that I wanna talk at all, because I don't... you know me... I don't like to get involve in drama,
this isn't for me to throw hate on a family or a situation,
I really want to bring it up because it''s so important that if we suspect something, if we see something
we need to say something.
There was a video that went out... um... Boogie, I don't know if you know Boogie, but he is another youtuber
and he, himself dealt with a lot of abuse growing up.
And I'll link in the description to his video, but he talks about how wished someone like Phil had said something
when he was growing up, because as he has gone older he's had friends say:
"yeah, we knew something was happening, we just didn't know what to do"
And I think that it's important for us to use our platforms to talk about and highlight situations
that could potentially be dangerous and pshycologically detrimental to someone.
And I know that the parents have come up recently and said:
"you know, all of our videos were fake, we were just afraid to say anything, cause our channel is gonna die".
I don't believe that, that doesn't mean it's not true, I'm just speaking my opinion.
I'm saying, I don't believe them when they it, they are like I said very calculated, there's no emotion that they show
when they talk about this, and the hurt and the pain that you see in their children's faces isn't something
that can be faked. Not to mention the physical violence that you see between
their children and what they instigate themselves and so therefore I have the tough time believing that those
things are fake, but if you're out there and you are struggling,
or if you know someone, or you suspect something... please, talk to someone, say something
speak up. We have child protective services in the states, I'm not sure what they have in the UK or in other parts
of the world, but you can leave in the comments: Where people go to contact if they think something is happening.
Because there is no need for people to suffer in silence. Too many children, adults, elders
are abused in this world and the sooner we speak up, the better.
And the overall thing that this whole experience has made me feel is grateful.
Grateful for our online community, and people like Phil Defranco and Boogie who have used the platform to
highlight situations like this and to talk about it openly because as you know
1 in 4 people struggle with mental health issues globally, and the more we talk about it the more we speak up
the more we can affect change, and that's a really poweful and wonderful thing.
If you wanna stay up to date on the story because it seems to be each an everyday new developments
I'll link in the description Phil's channel because he continues to talk about it.
He himself was abused as a child so this is an issue that is really close to his heart, so I will link to that
so you can follow along.
And as always leave in the comments your thoughts and your experiences with this
because as a community it's imporatant that we talk about this,
and as always the message that I have for today is:
If you see something, say something.
I'll see you guys next time :)