WATCH ABOVE: A Michigan boy’s video that aimed to take the power out of the hurtful comments of cyberbullies has gone viral, earning an invitation to the White House. Dani Carlson reports.
Logan Fairbanks wanted to take away the power of the words his cyberbullies used against him, by reading them out loud in a video that has since gone viral.
Over 860,000 views later in just over a week, 11-year-old Logan and his father Josh Fairbanks have already been featured on American talk show The Boris and Nicole Show. And in just a few days, the father-son duo will be heading to Washington, D.C. to discuss cyberbullying after receiving an invite from Valerie Jarret, a senior advisor to President Barack Obama.
The touching two minute video originally posted by Josh starts off with Logan explaining why he was filming himself reading hurtful comments.
“I’ve asked my dad to do this video for two reasons,” he says. “For me to encourage other people to not bully people online. And my second reason is to encourage other people that have been bullied to not let words hurt them.”
He goes on to read horrific homophobic and body shaming comments that online bullies had posted about videos of him and his father pranking each other.
“I hope he gets cancer,” writes on commenter. “Big, fat swine,” writes another.
The comments go on and on.
After he takes a moment to digest the hurtful comments written about him, Logan concludes with a hopeful message.
“I hope that people don’t bully other people online anymore and that this helps. And to people that have been bullied, don’t let these words affect you,” he says.
Logan and Josh’ message on cyberbullies has been heard around the world, and even in outer space.
The father and son have since established a non-profit organization called Take the Power aimed at raising awareness and education about cyberbullying.
The organization’s first initiative is a video challenge inspired by Logan’s video. The #SticksAndStones Challenge encourages people to record of video of themselves saying hurtful things others have said about them.
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