*Trigger Warning* AIBU to not understand how this YouTuber isn't being investigated for child abuse?

[milkmilklemonade12]

So I actually found out about this channel via another large forum I post on. Essentially, a YouTube channel which is called DaddyOFive (it's reasonably large, around three quarters of a million subscribers) centres around a blog made by the father, with 5 children. The upshot of it is, people were angry about how the family, lead by the father; bully one of their children Cody, and pass it off as just 'good old fashioned parenting!'

At first until I checked out the videos I honestly thought it couldn't be that bad. I was horribly wrong. Some of the videos are entitled:
Dad burns Cody's Pokemon cards
Dad destroys son's DS
Dad forces son to throw away his toys
I'm sending Cody to military school

In their most recent video, because Cody had been bad (smeared poop on the walls; a recognised sign of abuse and distress), they took all the other kids to DisneyLand.

These videos are horrific, and despite them being located in the US, I really feel like CPS should be investigating and YouTube should shut the channel down for child abuse.

If you can bear to watch the videos, the guy's name is DaddyOFive, and I'd urge you to take a few minutes and report their videos for child abuse. I really don't understand how in this day and age, this kind of thing isn't investigated more quickly. The child is sobbing, and regularly in horrendous distress at the bullying at the hands of his parents and siblings, so these videos could trigger people; that's why I haven't directly linked them and why I've placed a warning on the top of my post.

He is the biological father of Cody and Emma but not the other children.
The bio mum of Cody and Emma has reported them in the past to cps (ss) but it was investigated in a different state or something

Oh lord Three, we can only prey that Cody and Emma get returned to their mother and the other 3 find a home that wants them.

I got the impression Cody and his sister are the dads bio kids from a previous relationship and the 3 older boys are the mums bio kids from a previous relationship.

I also believe the videos are fake with smashing items or whatever. But they go way too far with how they yell and swear at the kids. They also encourage the kids to fight each other which leaves them bleeding or with lumps on their head, bite marks etc. You can't fake that! Cody looks genuinely distressed.

The mum has posted a vid on YT showing pics on the kids. It's so sad.

There is no way those children are acting or faking. Sure, they're told 'it's a prank, bro' afterwards. But the distress is real at the time, and that child was pushed into a bookcase by his 'father' and punched and kicked by his brother.

There is seriously something wrong with that man. He reminds me of the psycho guy in every Hollywood horror film ever made. His laugh, the way he looks are the camera, gives me the creeps.

And I agree with a PP, it's inexplicable and disturbing that people want to watch this on YT, and are defending them. I've found this really quite harrowing.

I've also been watching this since yesterday morning. I have watched the ink prank all the way through and watched clips other youtubers have put together of further abuse. My heart breaks for that poor lad.
I don't think anything will change even after the reports. They may lose some money and the youngest boy may be removed but the abuse is so ingrained in this family that they will start again.
The older kids beat the younger not just because they are bullies but also to keep the parents from hurting them. Making someone else the whipping boy protects the others from being beaten. If Cody is removed they will pick on another child within the family. I'm guessing it will be the other younger boy. It's a horrible dynamic but while those kids are with those parental units nothing will change. They all need therapy and loving homes but I honestly don't think the kids will be removed.
Some of the comments on youtube have also been horrific. A lot of them are suggesting that Cody will murder his parents as revenge and as he is so angry. This poor boy has been written off by so many. Surviving abuse doesn't make you a monster. With the right help this boy can live a normal life.
The whole situation is just a mess. I used to watch a lot of youtube family vlogs and some of the ways these people make money from their kids is sickening. Children are regularly being shown naked or in underpants. Those vlogs will then be tagged with bath time or similar to make sure the sickos can find them easily. People will tell the parents it's wrong and all that happens is that they get blocked. Children are filmed having serious medical issues and parents don't do anything as it's too important to film it and make money of the sick child.
Daddyofive is a scumbag but in the world of youtube he is not the only person to hurt their children. He is the tip of the iceberg. After all abusing Cody makes him £500 000 a year ish and others make millions from posting their kids naked.

milk I completely agree. I don't think Cody's behaviour is 'bad' and would never label him as 'bad'. My heart breaks for him and I truly believe that the so called parents are the root cause of any disturbing behaviour.
Quite frankly I find their behaviour more disturbing than Cody's and hope that he's not badly damaged by their behaviour, sadly that's very unlikely.

The thing that makes me sad is that a large proportion of their followers are only children themselves. And they may see this as normal. For example. I just came across the following tweet:

10h
Kristina卌‏ @hinkle312
Replying to @MikeMartin1982
You guys do so much for your kids, and you're right he just saw the parts where you "yelled" at them, your fam is goals compared to mine.

How bad must her home life be if she thinks this family is 'goals'

Typical child abusers use all sorts of tactics to avoid being prosecuted. Top tactic is to say they are being discriminated against. That's because they know people won't want to be accused of being abusers themselves. They will also say it doesn't really hurt the child, it was a game or use the other children to either carry out abuse or to blame for injuries. Filming it and putting it online is another form of this sort of diversionary tactic. Eg it can't be abuse because why would we film it and put it online. It's their way of carrying on the pretence that they can't possibly be abusing the children. I wonder how clued up the children services are in America and what the law is on abuse over there.

I can't get the clip of that poor little boy curled up in his bed as that nasty woman screaming at him that he is the only person in the family who can't take a prank, why the fuck should he have to put up with their horrible brand of abuse pranking anyway. I'm glad this has been brought to people's attention

Does anyone have the link to the rose hall (bio mum) interview?

littlemiss that's sick. I've watched many a youtuber but never come across anyone posting heir naked children. Surely YouTube wouldn't let that up? Horrible 🙁
Slightly different topic (but still relevant) is a story from the family the nive nulls. Seemingly lovely Christian family with 3 young children. Last year sometime a video got leaked of the dad jerking off in his bathroom and turns out he'd been sending them to random girls (not sure exactly details) the video went viral and everyone felt very sorry for the wife who had a young baby at the time. They sort of went of social media for a short while and then bam. They come back on and post a video and she's all forgiven him (I don't believe they acknowledge the actual video) and they talk about how God has forgiven him etc.... it just makes me sick and gives Christians a bad name as it's almost like saying 'do anything bad but it's ok we will forgive you'

I saw this being discussed on another group I'm in and watched about 20-30? Seconds of the video with the mother dropping the invisible ink and then screaming at the kids. That poor poor boy. He is terrified! What happens after screaming when the cameras are off to make him so scared? I couldn't watch any further than that.

I also watched the first 20ish seconds of the dad's response to all the "haters". One older kid piped up saying it was a prank and then the dad puts the camera on Cody and my god that is one terrified child! He was afraid to open his mouth or even lift his eyes. Eventually he did speak to mumble that it was just a prank and he was fine.

Found the interview with Rose Hall (haven't listened to it all yet, its 30+ minutes long). So far, her sister is speaking because Rose is too nervous. She says Cody has Oppositional Defiance Disorder. Cody and his sister Emma used to live with their bio mum, Rose. Cody was sent to live with his Dad and stepmum for a while to see if it would sort out his behaviour. The current wife of DaddyOFive, Heather, forged the signature of Rose Hall giving up her rights to Cody. Then eventually it went to court and the court sided with Mike (DaddyOFive) and Heather so Cody and Emma where sent to live with them.

Whether the kids should be back with their bio mum or not, i don't know. We don't know the reasons why the court already decided they shouldn't be with her. But the kids definitely need some kind of safe environment.

That whole household is in fucking chaos! The way the gang up on, and goad Cory is disgusting.

Codes where did you find the interview?

It was also very disturbing to read last night that a few twitter followers of that nan also blame Cody and that they should put him up for adoption.

The poor child is being treated in the most disgraceful way by the family and now because they have portrayed him in such a manner (where idiots are unable to identify abuse and see him as a naughty child) complete strangers want him sent away too.

I'm quite concerned that CPS will do nothing to protect this child/children.

No idea about their mother but it sounds like neither of their parents or step-parent are fit to look after them. Those children need nurturing loving safe environments and shitloads of therapy. Some of the damage that has been done in their short lives will already be irreversible but some of it will be fixable. The sooner they get out the better.

Nan=man

Rose Hall interview -

There's also someone in the comments of that video saying she is an ex wife of Mike.

Yukbuck Ellie and Jared are particularly bad for it and using thumbnails of naked kids in bathtubs. Jared also pulled off his nephews nappy and rubbed his freshly shaven beard over the kids bare butt. They are certainly not the only ones doing this but pulling your nephews nappy off on camera and rubbing your bare face on it was the straw that broke the camels back for me.
There are a load of other youtubers that do this but Ellie and Jared stuck out as they do so many other things that endanger their children. Their youngest child sleeps alone in the basement and their address is readily available on the internet. All their "fans" know the 3 year old is alone down there. Anything could happen to him and they dont seem to care. He is their least favourite child and always looks so sad.
Also their youngest stopped breathing in public and apart from a comment they didn't take him to a doctor but just mentioned it to make some money. Of course when the mother stubbs her toe she is rushed to the emergency room.
A lot of the Utah mormon vloggers also don't believe in car seats or even seat belts for their kids. Their god protects them from injury as they give 10% of their earnings to him so it's all good.
On top of that we had the ShayCarl scandal with the stripper/cam girl. Utah vloggers are a scary bunch. They all have that pretense of being godly people but behind closed doors they think nothing of having affairs or posting pictures of their naked kids to make money. These people make millions and the church makes a nice profit from them so they are easily forgiven when they shag hookers or show naked kids for cash

I didn't know that about Ellie and Jared ... their close friends with Bryan and Missy lanning of daily bumps my son watches a lot. In the basement? Why?

I found this on You Tube

The Ellie and Jared thing is a bity off topic but with a bit of googling most people can find several sites where the exploitation of the youtube kids is discussed. Some of those forums are not for the faint hearted as they can get a bit full on but you will find plenty of screenshots from vlogs
As for the basement living , it is a pretty normal thing to put the kids in basement bedrooms in Utah. Several families from the area do the same. I just think with their address and phone number being leaked they should be careful to make sure no one can get to their boy in the basement. Kids have been snatched out of basement bedrooms before and I don't think I would risk it when you spend all day posting naked pictures of your kids

I had a look at one for a minute and it's really cruel. they have a video where they apologise because they've got death treats and abuse over the videos because the videos are "fake" and "scripted" and that they make them for the kids.

It's cruel though even if scripted and pranks on the kids. There were real tears in them. I used to pull pranks on my brother and sister all the time. Things like jumping out of cupboards or changing all the pen lids on their felt tips. That's funny. Destroying their x-box is not funny!

I agree its cruel and abusive.