The ACE Family, YouTube's most popular family channel, which follows the adventures of Austin McBroom and his fiancée Catherine Paiz, has found itself in hot water yet again. The channel has been blasted for showing McBroom buying a toddler a lollipop that was clearly intended for adults.
McBroom, a former Eastern Washington pro basketball player, has 15 million followers on YouTube. The channel, which posts pranks between family members and videos of the couple’s day to day activities, has been subject to criticism before as a result of its home invasion pranks and bogus giveaways. Its latest video, shared on Twitter, showed McBroom and a young girl, reportedly related to his fiancée, at a shop where she pointed towards an adult-shaped lollipop.
“She said she was going to steal it if I didn’t buy it, so better me buy it,” McBroom says in the video. “Keep that in the bag forever. Do not show that to anybody, OK? That’s your little secret.”
Ace Family Under Fire https://t.co/M7ems6gFa5
— BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) January 10, 2019
McBroom’s followers quickly chastised the father of two for his inappropriate actions. “I watch the Ace Family because they’re a family channel but seeing this makes me so disgusted,” one user wrote. “Austin would never take Elle to this shop but just because it wasn’t his kid, he decides that it’s okay? AND FILM IT?? disgusting. unsubscribing right now.” Another user added, “When are y’all gonna stop supporting the Ace Family, look at what he did, this is literally so gross. he took advantage of a little girl’s naivety and used it for a sexual joke.” So far, McBroom has not acknowledged the controversy, and his subscriber count remains the same.
The Ace Family was recently disparaged by online users for announcing a basketball event that presumably gave away $100,000 to the winner. In the announcement, McBroom asked users to take part in the event, but after the participants were revealed, it turned out to be intended only for fellow social media celebrities. Fans were understandably upset and called out McBroom for misleading them.
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McBroom has also been dragged for old tweets in which he expressed his preference for white women and insulted black women. In one tweet he wrote, “St. Louis is scaring me away from black girls… blondes with blue eyes are looking more appealing!” It is unclear if the former basketball player intends to apologize for the video he posted of the lollipop or the tweets he’s written, though it seems like as long as he’s making money online, he’ll disregard the criticism.
