Horrified. Disgusted. Sad.

(There’s a poll at the end of this post. Please participate.)

Every little bear deserves to be protected by his mama bear. Sadly, not all babies/children have mothers who are good people.

Tonight, I sang, nursed and rocked my little boy to sleep, as I do every night. In those moments at the end of his day, my heart is full, my brain is relaxed and all is at peace in my world. As I lay my sleepy boy in his crib, I tell him how much I love him, and will always love him. I kiss him on his cheeks and his forehead and tell him I’ll be right out side and will see him in the morning. I leave his room with the fan on low, his noise machine on softly and I gently close the door behind me. Almost immediately, I turn on the monitor and look at him on the video screen. Sometimes I watch as he stares for a moment before falling asleep, and sometimes, he’s asleep before I leave the room. One thing I know, is that he knows that I love him. I am his mama and he is my boy. He is my world and I make sure his world is safe, happy, healthy and secure.

Not every child is this loved.

I left his room tonight, and went to my room for a few minutes of rest and catch up on Facebook, before making myself something to eat or cleaning up in the kitchen. Bad move. I’ve never been so upset by something I’ve found moments after being at such peace.

While perusing my Facebook feed, I saw a post by my sister that I didn’t understand at first. The video started playing automatically, and what I think is going to be a moment between a young boy and his father, immediately replaced any sense of peace and calm, as my stomach cramped up, my throat closed and tears of rage welled up in my eyes. I stopped the video instantly. I only saw maybe 5-10 seconds of the video and I was confused, sad, angry and suddenly, filled with rage.

A Facebook Page called Gossip posted this video as an act of “spreading terrible news”. The problem is, that it was terrible PERIOD. I will never be able to un-see those few seconds (and the video is 5 minutes?). NO VIEWER will never be able to un-see it.

Essentially, a small child (maybe 5 or 6), is physically mistreated by his father, as his mother films it on her phone, while her other younger baby sits in the background. Then, these “parents” post the video online, where it will live to haunt the child forever, until it is removed. The posters of this video claim that the parents were arrested and jailed, which is fantastic, but it doesn’t stop the video from existing. If anything, the more the people watch it, the more “success” the parents have, as clearly they’re terrible people who are probably excited by the growing number of views on their hideous video. There’s no mention of where the kids are, if they are ok, or anything that offers consolation to all of us so far removed from being able to help in any real way.

This set me off. OFF.

I immediately posted that people need to report this video as abusive to Facebook and have it removed immediately.

I immediately texted/emailed many of my mommy friends asking them to report the video to Facebook and have it removed immediately.

I didn’t get a response from Facebook, but my best friend did. Later, another friend got the same thing.

Are you serious, Facebook?

HOW DARE WE AS A PEOPLE CONDONE CHILD ABUSE BY LEAVING THIS TYPE OF MEDIA UP FOR ALL TO SEE AND (dare I say) BE ENTERTAINED BY???? Even leaving it up to show other people how “mean and terrible the parents are” is wrong. Where’s the protection for this child’s rights and life? The humiliation alone is overwhelming.

Is this what we’ve become? Why do we expose ourselves to nightmares, at the expense of the REAL HUMAN on the other side of the camera? How can we let this continue?

The subject of this video is a CHILD. He’s a person with a real soul and real feelings and reaalllly fucked up parents (pardon the exploitive). Whether his parents are “punishing” him, or whatever they could possibly say in their defense, filming the act and putting it online, then a GOSSIP site picking it up and sharing it for the world to see, is fundamentally wrong. It doesn’t matter that it happened in another country. This is a CHILD. He will grow up haunted by his past and hopefully won’t mimic the behavior himself.

I will continue to fight this and I ask you to do the same.

PLEASE click on this link and report the video to Facebook AND ask Gossip to take it down. We have to have some standards in our lives, including our lives online.

Whatever you do though, DO NOT PLAY THE VIDEO. Do not play it and watch it’s viewership increase. Do not scar your mind with this. Do not hurt this child by telling his parents that they provided entertainment for the world by harming their innocent child on camera. DO NOT BE A PART OF THIS PROBLEM. Be a part of the solution and help me figure out how to change our standards online.

The fact that abuse exists in real life is bad enough on its own. Sharing it with the world is unforgivable.

Tags: abuse, bad parenting, child in malaysia, facebook, facebook policy, father in malaysia, poll, problem, video, violence