[This is a back post. This happened in May, and it’s been on my list of things to talk about. And as you know, I fell behind on the blog. But as I catch up, I’m gonna talk about it now!]
So, one day I was on twitter (as per usual – every day of my life). And someone on my timeline brought attention to this family who was abusing their kids in YouTube videos that were framed as “funny” or “pranks.” This family had a whole bunch of subscribers and fans who thought it was funny to treat their kids like that.
(I didn’t watch a lot, because once I saw what was happening, I really didn’t want to see anymore. But one thing I did see was parents making a mess in their kid’s room, then having them come in and then screaming at them (that was funny “prank”) and if you wondered why the child look absolutely terrified by the screaming it was because they had reason to be scared of their parents, as they were manhandled and shoved into a bookcase in a later video.
A quick look at just a couple of the videos showed that the parents got physical with their kids (and were emotionally very harmful as well). But, I have become a little jaded when it comes to reporting abuse. I feel like all the time I hear the mindset, “Well, kids are just pansies these days. When we were younger, parents used to beat their kids with belts and we’re fine. Everybody hits their kids. Blah blah blah.” And it’s like unless the kid has literal broken bones, scares and bruises and cuts and maybe even burns and stuff don’t matter.
BUT I still called Child Protective Services, because you have to at least try. We (twitter) didn’t have a ton of personal info on the family. But we knew enough to call in (semi) droves and it was investigated. And the abuse wasn’t just excused. And the kids were removed from that environment!!!!
And I can already hear some people saying, “How can you be celebrating a child being separated from their family?” 1) I believe they’re way better off. 2) They got put with their biological mom. (The dad had custody with his new wife.) So, it’s not like they’re not with family at all. 3) If the family is really that important to each other, then maybe there can be a reconciliation after much counseling and such. Maybe. I don’t know how that part works. Personally, it’s hard to believe reconciliation would be the way to go. But that might be my personal biases getting in the way.
If I were actually involved in this in any way, I’d want to check my personal biases with statistics and doctors and people with intimate knowledge of childhood development to see if there was a good eventual path to reconciliation. But for the time being, I’m just celebration that we did something good, y’all! We harnessed the internet for real good. A big victory! Two children are SO much safer today than they were yesterday!
And not only is it wonderful to see the internet do something wonderful. It’s so wonderful to see in a world where I see waaaay too many stories of abuse victims not being believed, or being gaslit, or just not being able to find justice (or even at the very least, safety), these two kids are safe.
And I am finding great joy and thankfulness about that tonight.