00:00For years, FGTV has sold one product, a loud happy family playing video games together.
00:05But this week, the dad of the center of the brand went live on Instagram and called that
00:09same family the devil. Within hours, the internet did what it does with every FGTV moment. It clipped
00:15it, reposted it, and made content out of it. The difference is, this episode was real, and the kids
00:20are watching it spread like everyone else. If you don't know FGTV, a kid in your life does.
00:25It's a family gaming channel run by Vincent Carter, known online as Duddy, and his wife
00:30Samantha, and their four kids. The scale is huge. The channel's most viewed video, A Game
00:35of Granny, posted in September of 2018, has pulled in more than 491 million views. Their
00:41business model is simple. The kids are the cast, the house is the set, and the family is
00:46the brand. Keep that in mind because it explains everything that happens next.
00:50On October 6, Duddy posted a series of Instagram stories and went live on Instagram. He said
00:55his wife and four children were, quote, the devil and demons, talked about his fear being
00:59cloned, and spoke about his love for Jesus. Then he brought up a name that alarmed a lot
01:04of viewers, Chad Dorman. Duddy claimed Dorman killed his three sons because the devil influenced
01:09him. In reality, Dorman is an Ohio father, serving life without parole, after pleading guilty to
01:15murdering his sons, ages 7, 4, and 3, at their homes in June of 2023. So a YouTube father of
01:21four live on the internet, calling his family demons and bringing up that case, that's why
01:26everyone started panicking. For a lot of viewers, this one hit personally. People who grew up
01:31on FGTV were stunned. Others called it disturbing to watch someone you watch constantly as a kid
01:36go through something like this. And some people's minds went straight to the family. One person
01:41posted, imagine being one of his kids watching this. But as the story has started to circulate,
01:46one detail has gotten lost in the chaos. According to Primetimer, part of what Duddy was
01:51upset about was content. His son Mike had posted a YouTube video whose thumbnail showed Duddy trapped
01:56in a container for 999 years. Duddy said he told Mike to take the image down, and Mike allegedly
02:02refused. In most families, a fight over a picture is a dinner table argument. In this family, the picture
02:08is a thumbnail, the thumbnail is a product, and the argument happened in front of an audience.
02:12The next day, Duddy posted Instagram stories showing police officers outside the door.
02:16They came to check on me. Thank you guys for calling because of everything that happened,
02:21but I am good. He walked back what he said about his family, saying this isn't how he thinks about
02:26them. He didn't back off the bigger idea, though, adding, gotta know that word. You gotta know your
02:31Bible inside and out. Netflix doesn't matter. He also posted other stories saying he loves his
02:36family and that they're all fine. You know that that's not a way that I think of my family.
02:40Samantha released a statement on Instagram that day as well. In it, she said she and the kids are safe,
02:44that her husband is currently okay, and that their focus is protecting the children.
02:48Samantha continued that what looks like gossip from the outside is real life for her kids,
02:53and she asks for privacy. She also asked fans to stop calling the police because the repeated
02:58calls could take officers away from other emergencies. Then their oldest son spoke up.
03:02He explained his father had said, quote, untrue crazy things, and that the family is trying to
03:07figure it out and help him. And quietly, fans noticed on October 7th that the granny video
03:12had been made private. The family hasn't explained why, but fans have been re-uploading
03:17the video. Now, look at that sequence again. Duddy goes live. Fans call the cops so many times that
03:22the mom has to ask them to stop. A son then has to use social media, the same platform the
03:27family
03:27business runs on, to ask strangers to stop reposting his father. The family then pulls its biggest video
03:32down, and the internet puts it right back up. Every step this family has taken to get out of the
03:37spotlight is happening inside the spotlight. And that's the trap of a family-run channel.
03:42There's no studio, no network, and no publicist who can pull the plug. The parents and the kids
03:47are the talent, the crew, and the PR team. This week, they're also the people living through a real
03:52crisis. Meanwhile, much of the audience treated it like the next upload. Some of the concerns were
03:58real. On October 7th, one user posted prayers for the family and said someone needed to do a welfare
04:02check. And that's exactly what happened. It went well. We prayed together. And yeah,
04:08love you guys. Hope you have a blessed night. Remember, always pray and read Psalm 91.
04:13But it didn't stop at concern. Within a day, people were diagnosing him from their phones.
04:19One user called it religious psychosis. Another guessed he might be on drugs and added that she
04:24only found out about all of this because her daughter told her. And that last part says everything.
04:29The kids watching FGTV are the ones breaking the news to their parents.
04:34Now, lawmakers have started paying attention to kids and family content, but mostly when it comes
04:39to money. Illinois became the first state to protect child influencers' earnings.
04:43Vloggers there must put part of their earnings in a trust for kids who appear in at least 30%
04:47of their paid content within a 30-day period. And those kids can sue if their parents don't do it.
04:53So that law protects a kid's paycheck. But nothing protects a kid when the family's worst
04:58moment becomes content too. But here's where things stand with the family. Police checked
05:02in on Duddy and says it went well. His family states they're all safe and his son says they're
05:07trying to get Duddy help. But this raises a bigger question. When your family is a business,
05:12can you ever really log off? Share your thoughts below and follow It's Trending for more updates.
