Did the Shower Prank Dad Set Up His Kid For Online Abuse?

The boy from a viral shower prank video read some of the cruel comments about him and it’s pretty difficult to watch – which raises the question of whether his father should have set him up for ridicule at all.

Eleven-year-old Logan Fairbanks and his father Josh have a YouTube channel that mostly features Logan getting pranked in embarrassing ways. Their most popular video, with over 3.6 million views, shows Josh throwing cold water on Logan while he’s singing in the shower. (“Just a good-natured prank,” the description says defensively.)

Because this is the internet, many of the comments it received were predictably awful. “His dad scared the gay right out of him.” “It’s funny because he’s fat.” “I hope he gets cancer.” It’s hard not to feel terrible watching Logan’s face as he reads them aloud.

“Logan asked me to do this,” Josh wrote in the description. “As his dad I was very hesitant but he insisted that if there was a chance it could help someone then why not face his online bullies and try. I hope one day I have as much courage as he does.”

That’s all well and good – but then why make these videos of Logan and put them online in the first place? It would be embarrassing for anyone to get filmed singing in the shower, much less screaming and falling over and becoming famous for it – and Logan is a young, awkward kid who could have body image issues for the rest of his life. Another video on the channel shows Josh waking Logan up by putting a dirty diaper on his face. Isn’t that hilarious.

If this father wants to protect his son from ridicule on the internet, maybe not ridiculing him on the internet would be a good start.