Health

The Practice of Parents Posting Child Beatings Online Becoming More Common

Published

11 years ago

February 10, 2015

by Jamaal Abdul-Alim
Special to the NNPA from the San Diego Voice & Viewpoint

Back in the days when a Black child ran afoul of his or her parents or elders, the child might be asked to go retrieve a “switch”—a thin branch from a tree or a bush—in order for the adult disciplinarian to use to beat the child as punishment for a particular infraction.

“That’s some hell of a psychology, right, to make you go get a switch to beat your own ass with, right?” the legendary comic Richard Pryor observed once in his famous 1979 “Live in Concert.” These days, the “switch” may be largely a thing of the past, but it’s been replaced by a new form of punishment that is just as unnerving—if not more—than being asked to retrieve a tree branch that one knows will be used to inflict pain on one’s own hide. Instead of asking misbehaving children to retrieve a switch, a small but growing number of Black parents are retrieving video cameras in order to record themselves whipping their children, then posting videos of the whippings on social media websites, such as Facebook, to embarrass their children to get them to discontinue any non-desirous behavior.

In the cases of boys, the parents were often upset over their sons’ involvement in gangs or similar criminal activity. In the cases of girls, the parents were typically upset over their daughters being sexually promiscuous or representing themselves as being older than they actually were. Consider, for instance, the titles of the following videos, which can be found easily online:

“Father Slaps His Son For Trying To Be In A Gang ‘My Son Will Not Be In A Gang Who Ever Has A Problem Come See Me!’”
“Mama Don’t Play: Mother Whoops Her Daughter For Being A Thot!” (A “thot” is a contemporary slang term for a promiscuous girl.)
“Father Whoops On His 13-Year-Old Daughter Dressed Like Beyonce After Going Missing For 3 Days!”
“Father Gives His Nephew An Old School Azz Whoopin On Webcam For Acting Hard On Facebook”

The practice of posting videos of child beatings online is so disquieting for some Black scholars that some declined to comment for this article. And those who did speak did so hesitantly out of concern that highlighting cases in which Black children were purposefully beaten on camera might perpetuate false notions that Black parents are more violent than parents of other ethnicities when it comes to the disciplining of their children.

That’s a valid concern when you consider the fact that these videos—often just a few minutes or less—are generating millions of views online and thus saturating large segments of American society. All of the Black scholars contacted for this article condemned the practice of combining corporal punishment and social media as counterproductive. They also urged Black parents to try to find alternative means of disciplining their children.

“I oppose the practice,” said Dorothy E. Roberts, a professor of law and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. “I think they’re humiliating their children and I don’t think it’s going to help,” Roberts said. “If anything it’s going to make the children resentful. I think that humiliating children can be as painful as the physical harm.”

Carletta N. Perry, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Saint Leo University, said putting discipline methods on social media can increase negative attention-seeking behavior. “This is the opposite of what parents want,” Perry said. “They want their children to stop whatever negative behavior they are involved in, but sharing the discipline on social media is not the way. “Embarrassment may be one of the goals to stop the behavior, but, in fact, this type of behavior is an embarrassment to the family, the culture, and society,” Perry said.

It’s also legally perilous. In several cases parents were arrested for the beatings that were captured on videos and posted online. Both Roberts and Perry suggested that the practice of putting child beatings online appears to be indicative of parental frustration. They sought to make it clear that they did not want to bash the parents. They also sought to broaden the context in which the videotaped beatings took place. “I don’t just condemn these parents,” Roberts said. “I also condemn the situations that they and their children find themselves in.”

“As a psychologist, I have worked with parents who struggle to keep their children out of dangerous situations and in line on a day-to-day basis due to outside influences,” Perry said. “Unfortunately, I have also seen parents cry out for help to the police, to the courts, and to the community but many times their cry is unheard, unanswered and they feel alone in parenting during difficult situations.”

One important thing to understand about some of the cases in which Black parents beat their children and then post videos of the beating online is that some of the children’s misbehavior was perpetrated online. You might think of it as parents going to the playground where they were misbehaving and beating their children in public—only now the “playground” is the Internet.

Girls, for instance, may have been caught flirting with boys or older men online, and so their parents meted out the punishment in the same venue. Boys, on the other hand, may have bragged about gang involvement on their Facebook pages, and so their fathers or uncles post videos online of them beating the boys and forcing them to renounce their gang ties publicly.

Roberts questioned the premise of whether the practice of parents putting child beatings online is actually confined to Black parents and urged a reporter to search for cases in which parents of other ethnicities had done the same thing. While it’s difficult to collect and assess all cases of videotaped child beatings, a recent unscientific web search turned up one apparent distinction between cases of White parents and Black parents where videos surfaced of them beating their children online.

That is, in several cases where White parents had been videotaped beating their children, the video recordings were unintentional or surreptitious. That is to say, the White parents had simply been caught beating their children on video. Black parents, on the other hand, had put the videotaped beatings online on purpose. And sometimes they defiantly expressed blatant disregard for the legal repercussions or ramifications of doing so.

For instance, a Flint, Michigan mother who—along with her mother—made a video of them beating her 11-year-old son for claiming to be a “gangster” and not doing his school work actually looked into the videocamera and defiantly and daringly said: “Please call CPS (child protective services) if you want to. Watch this ass-whooping this ‘gangster’ gonna get.” The boy is made to apologize to his mother, asked about his grades in school and made to tell the people on Facebook: “it’s not cool to be a gangster.”

Illustrating how corporal punishment has been a longstanding institution within the family, the boy’s grandmother tells the boy she would “do just like my mama …. Walk and then come back and whoop your ass some more if I feel like it, you understand?” Perry—without speaking directly to the aforementioned case—said it’s important to “speak life into your children and tell them who they are, where they come from and where they are capable of going in their bright future.”

“And, always speak with love in your heart and never in angry moments,” Perry said. “Remember to pause before you speak because your actions and your words are the lessons they will remember.”

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The Practice of Parents Posting Child Beatings Online Becoming More Common

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COMMENTARY: The Biases We Don’t See — Preventing AI-Driven Inequality in Health Care

For decades, medicine promoted false assumptions about Black bodies. Black patients were told they had lower lung capacity, and medical devices adjusted their results accordingly. That practice was not broadly reversed until 2021. Up until 2022, a common medical formula used to measure how well a person’s kidneys were working automatically gave Black patients a higher score simply because they were Black. On paper, this made their kidneys appear healthier than they truly were. As a result, kidney disease was sometimes detected later in Black patients, delaying critical treatment and referrals.

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February 10, 2026

Oakland Post

Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson, M.D (D-San Diego). File photo.

By Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson, M.D., Special to California Black Media Partners

Technology is sold to us as neutral, objective, and free of human flaws. We are told that computers remove emotion, bias, and error from decision-making. But for many Black families, lived experience tells a different story. When technology is trained on biased systems, it reflects those same biases and silently carries them forward.

We have seen this happen across multiple industries. Facial recognition software has misidentified Black faces at far higher rates than White faces, leading to wrongful police encounters and arrests. Automated hiring systems have filtered out applicants with traditionally Black names because past hiring data reflected discriminatory patterns. Financial algorithms have denied loans or offered worse terms to Black borrowers based on zip codes and historical inequities, rather than individual creditworthiness. These systems did not become biased on their own. They were trained on biased data.

Healthcare is not immune.

These biases were not limited to software or medical devices. Dangerous myths persisted that Black people feel less pain, contributing to undertreatment and delayed care. These beliefs were embedded in modern training and practice, not distant history. Those assumptions shaped the data that now feeds medical technology. When biased clinical practices form the basis of algorithms, the risk is not hypothetical. The bias can be learned, automated, and scaled.

For us in the Black community, this creates understandable fear and mistrust. Many families already carry generational memories of medical discrimination, from higher maternal mortality to lower life expectancy to being dismissed or unheard in clinical settings. Adding AI biases could make our community even more apprehensive about the healthcare system.

As a physician, I know how much trust patients place in the healthcare system during their most vulnerable moments. As a Black woman, I understand how bias can shape experiences in ways that are often invisible to those who do not live them. As a mother of two Black children, I think constantly about the systems that will shape their health and well-being. As a legislator, I believe it is our responsibility to confront emerging risks before they become widespread harm.

That is why I am the author of Senate Bill (SB) 503. This bill aims to regulate the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare by requiring developers and users of AI systems to identify, mitigate, and monitor biased impacts in their outputs to reduce racial and other disparities in clinical decision-making and patient care.

Currently under consideration in the State Assembly, SB 503 was not written to slow innovation. In fact, I encourage it. But it is our duty must ensure that every tool we in the healthcare field helps patients rather than harms them.

The health of our families depends on it.

About the Author

Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson (D–San Diego) is a physician and public health advocate representing California’s 39th Senate District.

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As California Hits Aging Milestone, State Releases Its Fifth Master Plan for Aging

“California’s Master Plan for Aging started a powerful movement that is shaping the future of aging in our state for generations to come,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement, calling the initiative a “future-forward” model delivering real results for older adults, people with disabilities, and their families.

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iStock.

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

On Jan. 27, California released its Fifth Master Plan for Aging Annual Report,titled “Focusing on What Matters Most,” outlining the state’s progress and priorities as its population rapidly grows older.

The report, issued by the California Health and Human Services Agency (CalHHS), provides updates on the Master Plan for Aging’s “Five Bold Goals”: housing, health, inclusion and equity, caregiving, and affordability.

The report comes as Californians aged 60 and older now outnumber those under 18 for the first time, a demographic shift expected to accelerate over the next decade.

Launched in 2021, the Master Plan for Aging takes a “whole-of- government” and “whole-of-society” approach, coordinating state agencies, local governments, community organizations, and private partners. The annual report highlights significant milestones, including more than 100 California communities joining AARP’s Age-Friendly Network and $4 million in state funding awarded to local organizations to develop aging and disability action plans in 30 communities statewide.

The report also underscores California’s leadership at the national level, noting that dozens of states have followed its example and that federal legislation inspired by the plan was reintroduced in the U.S. Senate in December 2025.

CalHHS Secretary Kim Johnson emphasized the plan’s focus on equity and resilience amid ongoing challenges.

“The Master Plan for Aging continues to provide a vision, a focus, and a platform for collaboration,” Johnson said. “Equity is at the center of all that we do.”

Looking ahead, the report notes that by 2030, one in four Californians will be age 60 or older, positioning the Master Plan for Aging as a central framework for meeting the state’s long-term social, economic, and health needs.

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Candidates Vying for Governor’s Seat Debate at Ruth Williams–Bayview Opera House in San Francisco

The gubernatorial debate participants included Antonio Villaraigosa, former Los Angeles mayor; Matt Mahan, San Jose mayor; Betty Yee, former California state controller; Xavier Becerra, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, and attorney general of California; Steve Hilton, political commentator and political adviser; Tom Steyer, entrepreneur, and Tony Thurmond, California’s superintendent of public instruction.

Published

6 days ago

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Oakland Post

The gubernatorial debate was hosted by KTVU’s Greg Lee, KTTV’s Marla Tellez and KTVU’s Andre Senior. The candidates are (l.-r.): Xavier Becerra, Steve Hilton, Matt Mahan, Tom Steyer, Tony Thurmond, Antonio Villaraigosa, and Betty Yee.

By Carla Thomas

On Tuesday, Feb. 3, seven candidates took the stage at the historic Ruth Williams–Bayview Opera House in San Francisco for the gubernatorial debate, hosted by the Black Action Alliance (BAA) in partnership with KTVU and sister station KTTV Fox 11 in Los Angeles.

For many voters, it marked a first opportunity to hear directly from several candidates seeking to lead the nation’s most populous state.

Crucial topics and issues addressed throughout the debate included housing, crime, immigration, climate change, health care and homelessness.

The debate was moderated by KTVU political reporter Greg Lee alongside KTVU’s Andre Senior and KTTV Fox 11’s Marla Tellez.

Candidates also addressed inflation and the rising costs across the state, impacting everything from groceries to childcare and health care.

Thurmond vowed to generate 2.3 million units of housing by placing 12 units on each parcel of available land in the 58 counties of California. Steyer agreed that billionaires should pay their fair share of taxes.

Hilton wanted to cut taxes, help working-class families, and end the Democrats “climate crusade and insane regulations.”

Yee offered a more transparent governmental approach with accountability, given the state’s debt.

Gonzalez said, “This debate was a great way to see who has great ideas and who has substance.”

“It’s important to have the debate within a community that requires the most,” said business leader Linda Fadekye.

Attendees included State Controller Malia Cohen, representatives of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, the National Coalition of 100 Black Men, the San Francisco African American Chamber of Commerce, and Black Women Organized for Political Action, among others.

Event host, the Black Action Alliance (BAA) was established to amplify the voices of the Bay Area’s Black community, whose perspectives have too often been overlooked in politics and public policy.

Loren Taylor, CEO of BAA, said it was important to bring the event to the Bayview in San Francisco and shared his organization’s mission.

“The Black Action Alliance (BAA) stands for practical, community-driven solutions that strengthen public safety, address homelessness, support small businesses, expand affordable housing, and ensure access to quality education—issues at the heart of the Black experience in the Bay Area,” said Taylor.

California’s primary election will take place on June 2 and the general election will take place on Nov. 3.