*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.

Jess - I received the exact same email.

On mobile device so can't scroll but that particular youtube family is making roughly £500 000 a year from YouTube according to socialblade. That may be a high estimate. Other bigger youtubers can and do make millions

Personally, WannaBe, I don't care if there is worse abuse out there, or if other parents financially exploit their children under the guise of "celebrity", or even that it's been picked up by various news channels. As far as I'm concerned, I witnessed someone potentially (and in my opinion) being abusive to a child, and so I reported it to the appropriate authority.
People want to prank their kids? Fine. I play jokes on my own kid sometimes. Pushing a kid face first into a shelf, convincing them they are going to be adopted (particularly after they've already been separated from one parent for whatever reason), those are not jokes or pranks or anything remotely in the same ballpark.

wannabe I'm not sure I follow you at all! What do you perceive the issue to be? What are you planning to do about it then???

I don't read the response to the email as that, it says they are aware so it is being dealt with.

Can you suggest what we should do?

"a child who by all accounts has behavioural issues and has already been removed from his biological mother."

How is this pertinent to the fact they are emotionally abusing him? Maybe the behavioural issues come from the fact he's being picked on! If he has behavioural issues then all the more reason to treat him with kindness and love.

I just watched the 'we're devastated over these false accusations' video and it's made me feel sick; I can't bring myself to watch their videos of their actual children. I lasted about 2.5 mins of them going on about their fans before I had to switch it off - it made me so angry!
Reported to YouTube.

I can't bring myself to watch the video as I will be too upset but I have seen the screenshots a PP put up and I am heartbroken for this little boy. I have emailed the children's services via the email address supplied.

I hope someone helps him soon. Thank you OP for highlighting this

You should maybe listen to the account given by Cody & Emma's mother!

I can provide a link or look for it yourself. But allegedly both weren't even thought of or cared by Do5 till 2015. Then the mother wasn't happy with the way she thought Cody was being medicated, so she asked Mike for short term help, the rest is history. I strongly suggest you listen to Cody & Emma's Mothers versions of events as it'll be an eye opener.

I think between this and onision, youtube need to be brought up on their action/lack thereof against exploiting children

Elendon Just curious where you get the impression of sexual abuse.

Onison is the worst. He's a man in his 30's who has a website dedicated to judging girls bodies.

Onison is awful. I shared an article about what he does on Facebook to try and inform friends who are parents and had someone (not a parent) try to defend him because "the girls do it willingly"

*Delete or decay
*
The fact is the young girls who post the pics don't even realise what a compete nerd he is. He was married but slept with someone else behind her back and openly talks about his personal sex life despite knowing that nearly all his followers are underage.
One of his wives was underage when they got together and he had to hide her because of it. It's madness!

This guy is serious self obsessed

It tends to be best not to watch these kinds of things. I get very upset even if I just see a British parent smack a child i a shop (I never smack children and often it's illegal in the UK).

However I do think we live in countries where a range of attitudes is lawful. Eg I hsave never punished a child or done time out and it offends me people do that yet most mumsnetters do and I have not reported them to social services. In other words there is a range of lawful ways go bring up children and people differ and as long as it is within the law then that's okay.

I am not going to watch the video as it is probably upsetting but I suspect it's permitted. I have seen mumsnetters saying they do all kinds of really awful punishments for children and I hate it but I accept as part of a liberal society we have to allow strict and non strcit parents to exist.

On the other hand I would never censor a child's internet use which some mumsnetters would regard that as abusive of me. We all differ.

*Janetbrown
*
The videos are a lot more then just a smack or time out, it's 2 parents tormenting their children and being verbally aggressive and sometimes the children do get hurt as well.

I don't think any parent, no matter what their style of parenting was, would be ok with the way they treat their children.

For the love of God fans where are the Montages! .....but seriously this is not about physical discipline it's about abuse 2 very different things..

This reminds me of how one of my cousins was treated by his stepfather as a child. There were 4 children and the father was stepfather to the eldest. He used to pit the other boy and the eldest against each other and make them fight physically, he would hold the oldest so the younger one had free reign to get stuck in and he would add "Anne" or "Lina" to the end of eldest name to make it sound like a girls name. When I stayed with my sister he would try and encourage us to fight with him too but we just weren't interested. He was constantly tormenting him, teasing him, encouraging the other children to goad him. Even as a child I could see what he was doing and at that point I didn't know he wasn't his real dad (the boy didn't know either until he was a teen).

We're really not talking about differing ideas on discipline here, JanetBrown. We're talking about "pranks" and parents bawling at their kids until they are crying hysterically. He doesn't even put them out of their misery when they start crying - he goes on and on at them for ages.

I shouldn't have watched it (I wish I hadn't) but I watched one at random - "Kid destroys his brother's room" - 57 seconds into it, Cody's big brother body slams him onto his (wooden) bedroom floor. It did not look staged. He screamed and cried in pain.

The kids are chucking eggs at each other, the dad screeches to clean the motherfucking mess up. Cody's room is trashed by his big brother - and Cody is told to clear it all up. Cody is told to throw a toy (looks like something he's made) in the bin, he doesn't want to - dad yells "throw that motherfucking thing in the bin now". The brother snatched the toy and stamps on it. Cody then curls up in the corner of his room crying - and his brother throws an egg at him. All the while the dad is filming, laughing, shouting.

That should be nobody's idea of discipline, pranking or parenting.

Shoeshavesouls that's heartbreaking about Cody's toy. Absolutely heartbreaking.

It's absolutely not a case of differing opinions of discipline, some of the things in the videos appear to be so cruel. And the screams of those children...

Shoes my heart is just breaking after reading your post about some of the things that happen in those videos, it is just beyond me how some parents can be so cruel, and why are they allowed to vlog this shit and are getting away with it!

I think people will be extremely disappointed with the results of any investigation.

The freedom of adults to live and parent in the way they choose is considered extremely important in society and law. The ability to run your own family in whatever way you want is almost sanctosant and there is far less tolerance for state intervention, and social services being part of that.

As violence towards children is often linked with respectable and god fearing families, attitudes are different there (though not much, hitting children isn't illegal here either!). When I say 'attitudes' I mean as a whole society, vs individuals, as there's massive variation of course. It's a respect for this variation that allows families to behave in extreme ways.

If there is an investigation, i highly doubt anyone's going to be swooping in to get any of the children out. Rapped knuckles will be all, if that. Cynical yes, but the films aren't actually that definitive. It's up to interpretation, and then against very specific measures.

Horrific I just can't understand how anyone can put children through this, I just hope and pray something gets done.
Im emailing cp & have signed change.org
Can't watch the stills were enough for me,
Just a horrible vile man.

I agree with miscellaneous the ss in America is a lot more lenient.
I once watched a YouTube video about a family living in the back of a van, literally 2 beds and the 10 year old slept on the floor. No washing facilities or cooking area either. You'd have your kids taken straight away for that in the uk.

I've clicked the 3 dots on the top right of Daddyof5 page and given feedback that videos of distressed children should not be on there.

It took 2 min to find it and add feedback. I didn't watch it the images and titles are bad enough