Toy Freaks
Defunct YouTube channel
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Toy Freaks was a controversial American YouTube channel run by Gregory Chism, a single father of two living in Granite City, Illinois. The channel was known for its videos featuring Chism and his two daughters named Annabelle (born March 23, 2010) and Victoria (born May 13, 2008) in a variety of disturbing or inhumane situations.[1][2] It was created in 2012[3] and terminated by YouTube in November 2017.[4] The channel has been described as one of the first channels brought to light with the Elsagate phenomenon.
Gregory Chism | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 12, 1971 Granite City, Illinois, U.S. |
| Occupation | YouTuber |
| Children | 2 |
| YouTube information | |
| Channels | |
| Years active | 2012–2017 |
| Genres | Children-Comedy Slapstick |
| Subscribers | 10.5 million |
| Views | 6.9 billion |
| Last updated: November 2017[needs update] | |
In an interview in January 2015, Chism described himself as a single father of two girls, Victoria (age 6) and Annabelle (age 4).[4][5]
Controversy and termination
In November 2017, the Toy Freaks channel was highlighted by James Bridle in a Medium article, in which he wrote that the channel "... specialises in gross-out situations, as well as activities which many, many viewers feel border on abuse and exploitation, if not cross the line entirely, including videos of the children vomiting and in pain."[6] When the channel was terminated by YouTube later that month, it had over 8.5 million subscribers, and was one of the 100 most-viewed channels on YouTube.[4][7][8] YouTube removed the channel for violating its child endangerment policy, which they had recently revised in response to media coverage of supposedly child-friendly videos containing disturbing content on YouTube.[9]
Law enforcement struggled with how to go about handling the situation.[10] YouTube contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) which referred the case to the Granite City, Illinois police department.[10] Chism's company, Freak Media, LLC., was registered in Illinois but he resided in Missouri.[10] The Granite City police did not file any charges because they believed there was no "probable cause" for arrest by Granite City PD, citing the videos being shot outside of Granite City and saying that "Everyone is disturbed by this but finding the proper criminal aspect to being a bad parent at times is challenging."[10] They referred the videos back to the NCMEC for investigation in a different jurisdiction, but NCMEC did not know what to do with them, saying they were "kind of outside the scope of what NCMEC deals with specifically."[10] NCMEC referred the case to St. Charles PD, who determined the videos did not violate the law.[11] In a statement to Buzzfeed, a representative of the St. Charles PD said, "St. Charles County Police Department is not investigating Mr. Chism or the Toy Freaks YouTube channel."[11]