Logan Fairbanks is a slightly husky 11-year-old boy from Hartford, Michigan. He and his dad, Josh Fairbanks, have been pranking one another for awhile and posting their antics on the video hosting site YouTube. As reported by ABC News,
“But when the younger Fairbanks noticed a stream of cruel comments directed at him by Internet trolls, he asked his father to film him with a much more serious intention: confronting his bullies. In a two-minute video, 11-year-old Logan bravely and calmly reads the words of his hectors — calling him “fat,” “stupid” and saying “I hope he dies” — while looking directly into the lens.”
Josh Fairbanks wasn’t warm to the idea at first, as he told ABC News.
“I was very hesitant [to allow Logan to make the video]. I knew he had seen some comments, but I also knew that he hadn’t seen anywhere near the worst of them.”
“I knew the depths of how horrible people could get online, especially behind a screen where no one would know who they were,” Josh Fairbanks said. “I was able to shield [Logan] for a while but after more of our videos became popular, he watched them on his own and saw some not-so-nice comments.”
It took Logan a few months to convince his dad that he was serious about wanting to film a response to the online bullies. Josh finally relented and assisted in filming a brilliant two minute long video with Logan?reading some of the negative comments posted to his video channel.
“I wanted to show that I could be strong against whatever people said against me and to inspire others who deal with the same thing,” Logan told ABC News. “People from Sweden, England, Israel and all over have emailed us. It means a lot to me to see that my video is affecting people for good from around the world.”
Logan received positive comments too, and those helped him keep his composure and made him more determined to stand up to the bullies. After reading the list of comments, Logan ended his video by stating,
“I hope that people don’t bully other people anymore. I hope that this helps. And people that have been bullied: Don’t let these words affect you.”
Considering that the bulk of the comments are probably from adults, perhaps we can learn a lesson from the courage of this young man. Hiding behind a keyboard and logging ugly statements still makes you an ugly individual. We need more people like Logan in this world who are willing to stand up to the anonymous bullies.
