A content creator on TikTok, known by his username @flyysouljah and for being one half of the Island Boys, is doing what he can as a father to defend his son.
With 7.5M followers, the Venegas brother is subject to a fair share of hate comments — and it seems a wave of them hit his social media when he began posting content with his toddler in frame, a baby boy whose eyes were naturally wide and set further apart than the typical distance.
Comments were initially brutal, mocking his son’s looks before throwing out theories that the Island Boy was not the biological father.
One content creator posted a series of videos defending his son after he was brutally mocked on TikTok
Image credits: flyysoulja
“What planet is it from,” one person asked.
“Bro is ET’s baby not yours,” another said, referencing the unique, bulging eyes of the extra-terrestrials from the 1982 movie.
A third wrote, “Is it ok?”
“The baby looks like he has seen it all already,” a user observed.
Image credits: flyysoulja
But the influencer has taken the time to address as many of these as possible — even if some could be brushed off as harmless jokes to outsiders.
“I cannot stand comments like this,” he said in a video from May 10, addressing the netizen who said his son was ‘ET’s baby.’
He continued, “Don’t you ever talk about my beautiful son like that ever again. You understand me? Don’t you ever talk about my beautiful son ever again. Look how perfect he is. He’s beautiful — and I’m going to protect him at all costs.
“Because we live in a cold world. He is beautiful. Don’t talk about my son like that ever again.”
The Island Boy then went on to post a series of videos, lashing out at any cruel comments that had gained attention.
One comment even referred to the boy as "ET's baby"
Image credits: flyysoulja
“I want you guys to look at everyone that’s talking down on my baby,” he said in one clip, uploaded a few days ago. “None of them show their face. None of them.”
And whether it was the young father’s words or the excessive hate comments, a few users on TikTok took the time to defend the boy.
“I think it’s so weird that people bully a baby,” one person wrote.
Image credits: flyysoulja
Another stated, “No one should badmouth an innocent soul — no matter how you feel about the parents. That baby should be off limits!”
“Why are people bullying a baby?” a netizen asked. “It’s just a baby.”
In a particular video posted a little over a month ago, someone commented that perhaps the child has a condition called orbital hypertelorism — defined most frequently by an abnormally increased distance between the orbits, and suggested “genetic testing” would be a good idea.
While a majority of the comments made fun of the baby, others didn't take the subject so lightly
Image credits: flyysoulja
The influencer brother immediately shut the guess down, saying he assumed that “100 percent” of the people throwing out this terminology had no deeper knowledge of anything in the medical field.
According to Cleveland Clinic, orbital hypertelorism isn’t classified as a disease or a condition. Rather, it’s usually a symptom of a birth defect or genetic disorder. Extra bone will be filled in between the baby’s eyes, causing a greater distance.
Most affected will not encounter any problems with vision, although this varies from person to person. It can be treated surgically by repositioning the eyes when the patient is between the ages of five and seven.
Image credits: flyysoulja
As for the baby’s father himself, The Island Boys are social media personalities as well as rappers, best known for their viral song I’m an Island Boy, which gained massive popularity on TikTok back in 2021.
Almost immediately, they became memes of the Internet — some saw them as entertaining figures while others classified them as a symbol of viral culture gone wrong.
Born in Southern Florida, their real names are Franky and Alex Venegas. The two have distinct physical appearances, such as their heavily tattooed faces and spiked dreadlocks.
There was a somewhat balanced mix of mocking comments with sincere ones
