MrBeast, a kid-centric YouTube content father, is under fire for his companion and YouTube friend’s connection with child porn, transgender ideology, and grooming — with disturbing images on social media dating back more than six years.  ,
Jimmy Donaldson, the face of the MrBeast manufacturer, has long defended his sister’s identity anxiety, despite Donaldson’s affect on children via his YouTube channel. Before any claims of child cleaning and links to child abuse pictures, in April 2023 staff and companion of MrBeast Chris Tyson , announced on X , that he was “gender non-conforming” and on “hormone alternative therapy”. He changed his name to Kris, came out as bisexual, and separated from his wife Katie, with whom he has a child.
Tyson’s altercation had been a regular feature on the show for months, but Donaldson objected to concerns from parents and viewers that MrBeast was propagating transgender ideology without parental consent. As the backlash grew, Donaldson stood firmly with Tyson,  , commenting on X,” Yeah, this is getting absurd. Chris is n’t my’ nightmare’ he’s my f-ck-n friend and things are fine. I’m starting to get upset about all this transphobia.
Donaldson runs the most-subscribed channel on YouTube with , his main channel, MrBeast, capturing 307 million subscribers. He gets millions more viewers on spin-off channels. It receives 150 million views on average when MrBeast uploads a new video, which is typically made up of ridiculous but entertaining over-the-top stunts and pranks.
MrBeast has spawned a new genre of YouTube content with multiple , copycat channels , mimicking his style. Donaldson has expanded his empire to include a , fast-food enterprise , and a wildly successful , chocolate bar company. Last year,  , Forbes listed Donaldson , as the top-earning YouTuber and social media influencer in the world, making a reported$ 54 million.  ,
Donaldson’s brand and wealth have been built on a family-friendly image and his ability to eschew politics and personal controversy. Children watch videos on the channel with titles like” 1,000 Blind People See For The First Time” or” Offering People$ 100, 000 To Quit Their Job” Comments on Donaldson’s videos , ask,” When is MrBeast going to win a Nobel prize?”? and” I believe it’s safe to say that MrBeast is currently undoubtedly the best content creator.”
Over the past year, however, child abuse scandals have emerged, which Donaldson now says he’s investigating. Yet Donaldson, as well as other MrBeast staff, cynically chose to deflect all criticism of Tyson’s presence on the kids ‘ show as” transphobia” against their friend and colleague rather than inappropriate exposure to transgender ideology.
Karl Jacobs, a fellow MrBeast employee who also projects a silly and camp persona on camera, lashed out at those opposing transgender exposure on an internet show kids watch,  , writing on X, “F-ck the goofy mother f-ck-rs keep runnin your own stuff” after Tyson announced his transition. Now, there are allegations of Tyson being abused while playing with cartoons and having child abuse images.
In June 2024, YouTuber Prism42 , published a video , that alleged Tyson, at 20 years old, shared a chatroom with a 13-year-old boy in which inappropriate and sexual comments were made multiple times. Screenshots circulating online claim Chris made the child a moderator of the chatroom, had one-on-one contact with him on Snapchat, and sent photos to the group with , sexually suggestive captions. Among other inappropriate topics, screenshots allege the two joked about Tyson’s “hentai addiction”. The Japanese anime Hentai is highly sexualized and pornographic.  ,
Stills from the Prism42 video went viral via X on July 22. The child — now a man who goes by , @LavaGS , on X — initially spoke out in defense of Tyson, appearing to confirm that the interactions did happen, but claiming they were just “edgy jokes” and that Tyson had not groomed him. When that person changed her mind on July 26 and said in a new statement,” I strongly condemn these conversations with people at the time, at the age I was at the time,”
That same week, more alleged , victims came forward. One,  , @ImBrainFreak, claimed , he was in the same private chatroom with Tyson and LavaGS when he was 15 and Tyson sent him links to porn and hentai.
One former MrBeast co-presenter,  , Jake Franklin, who went by the name” Jake the Viking” on early MrBeast videos, boosted a series of tweets blasting Tyson before tweeting,” Jimmy knew“. Another self-declared former employee calling himself” Dawson” released a video from outside of the MrBeast recording studio and , claimed that ,” Chris is just the tip of the iceberg and when Jake the Viking said’ MrBeast knew,’ yeah, MrBeast knew”. The Kendrick Lamar song” Not Like Us,” which features the lines” Certified lover boy,” was used as the video’s introduction. Certified pedophiles”.
Tyson has long been known for his apprehensions around animated images of child abuse. As , Reduxx reports, Tyson has tweets dating back to 2016 that include sexually explicit cartoon images of what appear to be children.  ,
Some of Tyson’s tweets were dismissed at the time as “edgy humor”. They publicly expressed admiration for” Shadman”, who , rose to internet fame for drawing “loli”, or pedophilic cartoon images, sometimes modeled after real children.  , According to now-deleted social media posts I captured, the two interacted on X as recently as 2019.
A screenshot of a Shadman and Tyson conversation from January 2019 that was captured before it was deleted revealed a picture of an anime character called” Raphalia” who alternates between an adult and a 10-year-old girl. Shadman asks,” What is this and why do people keep sending me this”?, to which Tyson responds,” Pls Shad. Pls“.
In another , now-deleted interaction , with Shadman from 2018 that I caught on video, Tyson refers to a sexualized drawing of the movie character , Maleficent. Another user , inserted a MrBeast meme , under the image and Tyson wrote” Lol, just a random @MrBeastYT meme on shad. Love it”, to which Donaldson replied,” This is all we’ve ever wanted, we can quit now”.
Tyson tweeted a Shadman image that depicts a girl wearing braces sucking on a handgun in suggestive terms in a tweet from 2017. On the girl’s tank top are a sexually explicit term and a pornographic term tattooed on her leg, respectively.
In another tweet, Tyson , appears to reference the image , by stating,” This is coming from the guy who owns a @shadbase drawing and has it as a centerpiece in his sitting room”. Disturbingly,  , according to a screenshot I grabbed, the image appears in one of MrBeast’s videos , from 2018 that was shot in Tyson’s house. While the video on the MrBeast channel , has been edited , to remove the section containing the image,  , copies of the original , can still be found online.
Donaldson , and , Tyson , have now issued statements on the scandal. I would like to express my regret for any of my past actions or comments if they hurt or offended anyone,” Tyson said in a statement on July 23. It was not my intent. In light of recent events, we have come to the consensus that it’s best for me to completely cut out of MrBeast and social media to concentrate on my family and mental health.
After other alleged victims surfaced on July 24 and major media outlets were beginning to cover the story, Donaldson issued a statement stating that” I’ve seen enough online and taken immediate action to remove Ava from the company, my channel, and any association with MrBeast.” Any of the inappropriate actions that I condone or support are not acceptable.
Donaldson also said he has hired “independent” investigators to probe the allegations.
