Fan Rating Scandal
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Smurf Says... |
The Fan Rating Scaldal or Body Rating Scaldal occurred from late 2016 to early 2017. This is when Onision received immense backlash and criticism for using fan submitted images in his content. What upset critics the most was he allowed and defended his use of images of scantily clad underage fans. Although he fully defended it at the time, Onision now denies this ever happened. He now falsely claims he has an 18+ age restriction on his submission forums. (Source)
- Admin note: This is a very slimmed down version of the page I was planning to make. I want to be careful with the sources I use as there are many archives that contain uncensored images of fans. I do not currently have the means to censor and take video clips. I will update this article with a lot more information and sources in the future. In the meantime, you can contact me if you need more in depth proof. My info is on the homepage.
Beginning
Onision used several platforms to host fan submitted images for his videos before settling on the Onision.xyz forums.
Onision.co
On August 15, 2016, Onision opened his Onision.co forums. Like other iterations of of the Onision Forums, he advertised it as a way fans can get into contact with him. (Source) Also like his previous forums, this forum had no age restriction. In September, Onision began creating topics asking fans to submit images so he could react to them in videos. Topics created by Onision included "Before & After Puberty", “Post A Picture of A Teacher Who Is Really Mean To Students", “Let Onision Guess Your Age”. Onision asked viewers to write "Onision" physically in the image to prove it was themselves. (Source) Fans, including underage fans, would reply to Onision's posts with images and sometimes including information about themselves, like where they are from or how old they were. Onision would react to his fans' images in videos and sometimes choose one fan as a winner. He would often promote his forums at the end of the video so fans could submit images for the next topic.
Candid App
Sometimes, Onision would tell fans to submit photos and videos for contests through an app called Candid. It seems Onision had a sponsorship or partnership with this app because he offered expensive prizes for fans including an iPad, an Xbox One S, and a Nintendo 3DS. (Source) It seems this was a social app where Onision ran a chatroom or groupchat. Topics included a video dance competition, a cosplay contest, and a singing contest.
Tumblr
Onision moved to Tumblr not too long after beginning to use Onision.co for photo submissions. He began asking fans to submit images through his Tumblr, which at the time was located under the URL Onision.com. (Source) The Tumblr submission process differed from Onision.co because Onision himself would have to view every image submitted and approve them to be posted onto his Tumblr page. On the forums, anyone could immediately submit a photo to be viewed, but the post and image could be subjected to a takedown from a volunteer moderator. Tumblr required users be at least 13 years old to make an account, but it seems the Onision submission box was open to non-users as well.
Onision would announce video topics at the end of his videos and direct his fans to Tumblr.
At this point, video topics began to take a turn. They began to heavily focus on fans' bodies such as their weight and specific body parts. Video titles included “FAT GIRLS (Are These Girls Fat? Or Curvy?)” and “BODY IMAGE - Best And Worst Bodies". Thumbnails for these body videos often featured images of female fans in their bra and panties. Fans began to write "Onision" on their chests or stomach using a marker or lipstick. Onision's tumblr page was filled with images like this.
Onision.xyz
In October 2016, Onision moved to the Onision.xyz forums. This is the infamous website that is often referenced to this day when the fan rating scandal is brought up. This website was created with photo submission in mind and had a dedicated subsection for photo submitting topics. This website also had no age restriction.
Onision started off by making topics himself on these forums. These topics included “SHARE YOUR THIGH GAP”, “Be As Ghetto As Possible”, and “Show Off Your BODY ABNORMALITIES” (Source, Source)
Onision's fans began to create their own video topics and Onision would make videos based on whatever thread was the most popular. The forums were overwhelmed with fan images and he made many fan rating videos. Onision's reactions to fans images began to become notably more harsh. He would boast that he would give his fans his brutally honest opinion to help them with their body positivity and self esteem. He would often push fans to go vegetarian if he believed they were too fat or eat more if he thought they were too thin.
Topics also began to be mostly centered around reacting to fans' bodies or attractiveness. Attractiveness topics included, “Would Onision AND Lainey Be with You” and “ONISION SMASH OR PASS”. Onision's husband would make videos assessing if he is attracted to fans' photos as well on his own channel. Onision and his husband were known to take in thirds in the relationships, often found through their fanbase, so these topics were extremely popular with fans who were trying to gain their attention.
Article
On December 18, 2016, a concerned mother took to reddit after finding out her 13-year-old daughter was taking photos of herself in her underwear to submit to the Onision forums. She created the topic titled "A dangerous YouTuber. Watch your kids online" where she warned other parents about the YouTuber Onision and his photo submission forums.
Her pictures get uploaded from her phone to the iPad. I looked through them and found many photos in her underwear. She had a word I've never seen written on her stomach. It was "Onision."
I immediately asked her about it. She told me that he is a yoytuber that "promotes" body positivity and posts videos of girls bodies that they submit to him from his forums.
I looked through his forums and found thread upon thread of girls my daughter's age posting nearly naked pics of themselves to be validated by this man. I was livid. It really looks like he's just trying to get scantily clad pics of young girls.
I looked into him more, he apparently has a penchant for young girls. His wife was only 17 when he met her.
The thread gained a lot of chatter, but it was removed by op. The Reddit post inspired a journalist to look into the Onision forums and on December 20th, the article "YouTuber Onision Runs Creepy Forum Where Young Teenage Girls Post Photos in Their Underwear" was posted to Heatstreet. The article goes into detail about the journalist's finding in the website, mostly focusing on how openly underage girls are talking about their age and freely posting images on themselves in their underwear. They found examples of girls as young as 11 on the site. The journalist points out they were unable to find any age restriction rules on the website. The article also delved into Onsision's body rating videos and pointed out cruel comments he made about his fans' bodies such as comparing a fan's body to Shrek. (Source)
The Heatstreet article went viral and Onision's forums were slammed with traffic. Onision boasted his forums reached 30,000 members, but complained that people were treating him like a criminal for doing something legal. (Source, Source)
Onision replied to the article with a video titled, “I’m Done Making These Videos…”. In the video, he reads through the article and defends his actions. He says he is just being bluntly honest and his fans chose to submit the photos for his opinion. When the article points out there are many young girls in his videos and forums, Onision says he doesn't control who comes to his site. All people can post there. He says it is not illegal for a young girl to post a photo of herself that is not pornographic. He emphasizes the forums disallow pictures that would be considered inappropriate by YouTube. When confronted with the article stating the journalist could not find any tos about users needing to be 18, Onision asks why would he discourage people who are not 18 to post photos. He accuses the article of being bias and acting like his website is a porn website.
When reading that the article pointed out a user posted a photo of themself in their underwear and said they were 15 in their post, Onision defended this by comparing teenagers at a swimming pool wearing bikinis. "So you're telling me that a person could go out of their way to go to a public swimming pool to take pictures of young girls wearing outfits that cover as much skin as their underwear and they're perfectly fine, but the moment one of those girls calls their bikini "underwear" and they take a picture of themselves, they submit the picture because they're not confident about their body and need some feedback. Well, whoever has a ton of life experience and discusses that image in a constructive way that could help their body image, well of course to you they're a pedophile, aren't they? Despite the fact that nothing illegal happened and a young women greatly benefitted from the exchange she she feels better about herself- No. She is now of course a victim because she does not have a penis and therefor were should all feel sorry for her despite her no-doubt being one of the many people that have come forward and thanked me for my refreshingly honest perspective." (Source)