YouTube family influencers rehomed adopted Chinese special needs boy
A Family YouTuber Has Ignited A Firestorm After Admitting To Rehoming Her Adopted Autistic Son https://t.co/3ykz9LLlZE
- BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) May 28, 2020
YouTube person with almost one million followers who shared her family’s experience of adopting a toddler from China, Myka Stauffer, announced on Tuesday that she and her husband had rehomed their child after behavioral issues.
Causing a firestorm on social media with many questioning the ethics of Myka, after she spent years sharing intimate details of her son’s life on a monetized channel. Making his story a key theme on her channel, which exploded in popularity and landed her several high-profile sponsorships, turning herself an advocate for international adoption. These sparked a debate on the rights of children on social media, has led to an outcry against the couple and their decision to monetize their and their children’s lives.
Myka produced 27 videos about their “adoption journey,” and the process of adopting from China which led to her writing articles on adoption from different races and countries. The final video where they all go to China and pick Huxley up was a huge hit, viewed more than 5.5 million times, getting sponsorships and turning into a figure in parenting influencers community.
In late winter and early spring, followers began to notice Huxley had stopped appearing in videos. In Myka’s last post featuring Huxley, on Feb. 16, discussed the difficulties of dealing with his special needs. On Mother’s Day she wrote it was the “hardest” holiday she’d had. After pressure from followers to know the whereabouts of the kid, they finally admitted that they had removed him from their home and placed him with another family. This was made for Huxley’s emotional well-being, since Huxley had several special needs they weren’t aware of until he came home to the USA.
The couple said they stayed silent to give Huxley privacy and for legal reasons. However, many people were uncomfortable, since Huxley had been a big part of the monetized channel and because they dragged the boy all the way from China, making him start all over again, then giving up on him, while Myka gained followers and sponsorships from him.
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