A 12-year-old boy on YouTube is being hailed by some Christians as a martyr for enduring insults, although a better description would be “disturbed.”
Scott, whose screenname is ChristianU2uber, has received thousands of views for his videos, in which he decries same-sex marriage and seemingly admits to being ex-gay, saying that he used to be gay until he found out it was wrong, and “now I like girls.” He identifies himself as a Christian and says his videos are there to “Teach You What Christianity Is All About” (capitals his).
The videos have attracted a litany of reprehensible comments – amazingly, from so-called grown-ups – taunting him with epithets such as “fag” and “homo,” and telling him (in varying graphic detail) to commit suicide.
Now right-wing WorldNetDaily has decided to praise him, comparing him to the Protestants murdered for their faith in the 16th century, as written about in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (1653).
Both reactions are irresponsible. The boy has obvious psychological issues. In one video he smacks himself on the head repeatedly. In another he relates a story of being bullied at school, and says that when he came home he released his anger by smashing a brick “into a million pieces.” On his profile he says he plays violent video games because “It Is Good To Just Let Out That Violent Feeling Deep Inside” (again, capitals his). And what prepubescent child says he used to be gay, but started liking girls because he found out being gay was wrong?
This child is not in a healthy place. He is not being helped by the cruel and merciless bullying he has endured on YouTube (children have killed themselves over less), and nor is he helped by Christians hailing him as a martyr and giving him the attention he is clearly desperate for.
Where is YouTube while this shameless exploitation is going on under its nose? Where are Scott’s parents in all this?
Some aspects of seem a little calculated – the posters of male teen idols visible on the wall in some videos, for instance – and it has crossed my mind that ChristianU2uber is being used for a prank, perhaps by an older kid. But if this is real, some adults need to wake up and do something, because this is the kind of kid whose next attention-getting act will be to take a shotgun to school – or worse.
UPDATE: If you have a YouTube account, please flag these videos. The kid needs help, not more exposure.
Dave, as a professional counselor I am simply appalled by Worldnetdaily’s actions. Is there no one on staff there that looks at this situation as a humanitarian instead of as an idealogue? I mean, my goodness, the parents of this boy should be notified immediately by YouTube (or WND, since they are already aware of it) and the young man be brought in for psychological care. I’ve also been a youth worker and you can see it in kids at this very age the patterns the are setting the groundwork for another “columbine.” It’s time for someone to reach out and care for this young man’s heart instead of exploiting it for religious and political reasons. My gosh, how low can you go?
Just when I think WND’s hit rock bottom, they’ll get out their shovels and dig! I haven’t seen these videos, but they sound utterly horrific, and like something that desperately needs to be discouraged rather than encouraged. Whether an older kid (or even worse, an adult!) is getting him to do this or not, he needs help. I hope somebody points him to it.
Some so-called adults really need to understand that there’s more to being grown than passing puberty. Sometimes if a child says something offensive, you need to be the adult and let it slide, or in extreme cases like this, hear the veiled cry for help underneath. I hope the ones telling him to kill themselves lose their accounts, too.
I very seldom flag anybody, but it looks like my trigger finger will be busy here.
YouTube is doing what they should be doing – nothing. YouTube simply provides the platform. They should not (and, let’s be practical, cannot) police or babysit its users. We don’t expect WordPress to monitor for suicidal blog entries, Google to monitor every website, or Ford to limit their cup holders from containing underage liquor.
Not sure where to begin with your comments, Ephilei. Your description bears no resemblance to how YouTube actually works.
YouTube is not just a platform: it describes itself as a community, and is run in accordance with community guidelines. YouTube most certainly does monitor and police content, based on a whole range of criteria, and makes no secret of it.
The kid shoots videos of himself violently abusing himself and venting abuse at the camera.
He is an abused youth, unmonitored by negligent or irresponsible parents, taking his violence out on YouTube users.
He is a danger to himself, and YouTube should no more host this emotional instability than host videos of kids committing suicide.
Everyone, please flag his video for removal.
This is serious. I have been flagging videos but one person can’t do it alone. What we need is some press on the popular gay youtube channels to get a flagging campaign going. Instead of these young queers just saying”I’m fabulous”, can’t they galvanize a movement to flag all the disgusting parodies, and force youtube to take action?
These channels include
https://www.youtube.com/user/5awesomegays
https://www.youtube.com/hartzproductions
https://www.youtube.com/greyk2
https://www.youtube.com/stevieproductions
https://www.youtube.com/disneykid1
https://www.youtube.com/tyleroakley
https://www.youtube.com/user/GDProphetXVII
https://www.youtube.com/user/glaadvideo
This is SAD. A young boy going through Puberty being taunted with ludricous hatefilled comments. Now WND has taken notice and will spin it off as the GLBT community being intolerant when in fact it is not. The whole situation has potential for a BAD outcome. I watched a couple of his videos and flagged them, hopefully an adult at YouTube will wake up will pull the plug on the user and his videos.
Part of me wanders if it’s a “plant” to stir up emotions. Part of me says this is young guy on a quest to find himself. I’m baffled. The guy should turn off the computer to go oustide and be a kid! You’re only young once, enjoy life without all the responsiblities and hassles.
Watching from the sidelines….
Sorry to inform everyone on this site but the videos are not a problem anymore. /b/ forum found interest in this kid and his views and decided to put a stop to it themselves. If you go to his page you can blatantly see it has been hacked. The kid is no longer uploading videos of himself and will probably have his videos used in humerous parodies to mock him. We can no longer do anything about this problem it is out of our hands.
These kids who post videos on YouTube remind me of the show Jacka$$ when it first came out young boys went around doing incredibly stupid things because they found the original funny and wanted to copy it. I hope this boy is ok.
I’m not sure what you mean, Alex. He may not be uploading videos, but I don’t see that the site has been hacked. More troublesome, it doesn’t appear that Youtube has bothered to do anything either. If this had been a copyright claim, it would have peaked their interested quickly.
ChristianU2uber’s channel hasn’t been hacked. It appears to be just as it was before.
Alex, perhaps you were looking at a sockpuppet channel? There have been several.
I just saw this video and only watched a tiny bit. But the horrible invective directed at this kid was another example of cyber assault.
So vicious and yes, WND is lying if they interpret this as coming from gay people.
It was definitely ANTI gay.
Gay people for one would empathize with this boy. He is vulnerable and he needs the right kind of attention from gay sympathetic and qualified people. Even if the kid isn’t gay, he still needs non judgmental support.
I’m worried about him too.
I’ve now viewed some of these videos. It’s possible, I think, that they are just a hoax, designed to see what reactions they provoke. But if they are genuine, then they are cause for grave concern.
You sometimes get the feeling, “Haven’t I seen all this before?” A few years ago there was broadcast on television here in England a documentary entitled Better Dead than Gay. It told the story of a young gay man called Simon. During his years at secondary school he was bullied almost unceasingly because he didn’t fit the macho stereotype. The diaries that he kept made it clear that he turned to religion for comfort and consolation. His father was a “born again”, fundamentalist, evangelical Christian, and when Simon realised that he was gay he didn’t dare say anything to his parents, but spent some years going back and forth between Christian psychiatrists, ex-gay ministries and exorcists in a frantic attempt to eradicate his natural sexuality. Eventually, while his parents were away on holiday, he did himself in, leaving behind a note for his parents telling them that he was gay and that he’d killed himself because he couldn’t reconcile that with his religious beliefs.
It looks to me as though this boy Scott has taken his first steps along the road that Simon travelled. Whether he’s gay or not – and who can possibly tell at his age? – I’d bet you any money that he’s being bullied for not being macho enough and that he’s adopted the so-called Christian “gay is wrong” line as a defence. If he does eventually turn out to be gay, he’ll be a prime target for the ex-gay cults. Between the overt homo-haters (of the kind who are posting abusive and obscene comments to him on YouTube) and the ex-gay brigade, who cover their homo-hatred with a sanctimonious veneer of Christian concern and charity, and whose message is that it’s better for people like him to be bullied (whether they’re actually gay or not) than for being gay to be regarded as acceptable, he won’t stand much of a chance. The poor kid needs protecting.
If you go to his page you can see that it has been hacked and I’ve found signs on /b/ that they have been planning to hack it since that site is notorious for hacking social networks
ChristianU2uber’s page has not been hacked. This is exactly as it has been since last week.
Aside from harsh comments, which have been there in abundance since early on, I see no evidence of any hacking. If you still think so, Alex, can you be specific about what you see that you think is hacked or signs of it? I really don’t think that’s the case.