Video Claiming ‘Bullied Boy Quaden Bayles Killed Self’ is Fake

A purported video ‘from BBC’ claims that bullied boy Quaden Bayles killed himself after bullying at school worsened.

A purported video ‘from BBC’ claims that bullied boy Quaden Bayles killed self after bullying at school worsened.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

After his mother posted a Facebook Live video in February to raise awareness of the impact of bullying, Quaden Bayles, a 9-year-old Australian boy won the support of well-wishers from all around the world.

CLAIM

A video with a BBC logo is doing rounds on various social media platforms with a claim that Quaden Bayles has killed self and and has “left a suicide video in his Phone.”

The claim further states that Bayles had sent the video to everyone at his school after the bullying worsened.

An archived version of the post can be found here.(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

TRUE OR FALSE?

The Quint could confirm that the video is the being circulated with a misleading claim as no such video was released by the BBC.

WHAT WE FOUND

A simple look at the website raises several doubts regarding its authenticity. While the video carries a BBC logo, the URL suggests that the source of the article is Australian Network News.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

On clicking the video, we were directed to another website under the name trendingnow.suzeraincollections.com. It’s noteworthy that there were no back links to BBC or any other authentic news website.

(Source: trendingnow.suzeraincollections.com/Screenshot)

On playing the video we discovered that it led us to a news bulletin about the murder of another 9-year-old. There was no mention of Quaden Bayles in the bulletin.

(Source: trendingnow.suzeraincollections.com/Screenshot)

A few seconds into the bulletin, an age-related warning appears requesting the viewer to share the video in order to continue watching and that is where we hit a roadblock.

(Source: trendingnow.suzeraincollections.com/Screenshot)

Further, it can be confirmed that the claim stating that Quaden Bayles has killed self has no substance to it. There are no news reports to authenticate the information. Further the Bayles family declined an interview on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and other paid international appearances, but no mention of the boy’s death has been made.

Hence, a fake video claiming that Quaden Bayles killed self is being circulated with an end goal to make the user share the video on Facebook to gain more traction.

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