Utah
Police investigating Utah mom-fluencer after online uproar over video she posted of her son | CBC News
The Utah mom influencer behind the viral “17 diapers” trend is being investigated by police after an internet uproar over a video that appeared to show her son flinching.
TikToker Hannah Hiatt, previously known online as Nurse Hannah, has since deleted the video, which was filmed in a grocery store and appeared to show her toddler startling and briefly hiding his face as his father walks up to him. As People Magazine reports, the video sparked hundreds of comments from people concerned for the boy’s well-being.
A spokesperson for the police department in Ogden, Utah, confirmed with CBC News Thursday that there is an “open and active” investigation into Hiatt’s videos.
“Last week, the Ogden Police Department received multiple reports regarding a collection of ‘viral’ videos circulating on social media,” Lt. Will Farr told CBC News via email.
“Many of these reports included allegations of criminal conduct, prompting the initiation of an official investigation. The case remains open and active,” Farr said, adding they would not be releasing further details at this time.
CBC News could not reach out to Hiatt due to her online security settings. But she posted a response to the initial reactions on Nov. 29, starting out by saying, “the fact I have to even address this right now is kind of insane.”
“Social media is just — it’s a scary place,” Hiatt said in the video titled “My explanation,” which currently has 27.5 million views, and the comments turned off.
In the three-minute video, Hiatt says she never used to understand why people felt unsafe posting their children’s faces online, until now. She goes on to say her that her husband is “the sweetest, nicest, kindest, most loving, most nurturing father in the entire world.”
“It makes me really sad that social media has turned it into something… or, me, I guess, it makes me really sad that I have turned it into something like that,” Hiatt said.
She further explained that the video people are “freaking out about” shows James and his father playing, something she says they often do by scaring each other.
“Nothing is going on,” Hiatt said tearfully.
The dark side of sharenting
The allegations haven’t been proven, no arrest has been made and the only detail we know about the investigation right now is that the reports made to police included allegations of “criminal conduct.”
But some have observed that Hiatt’s story illustrates the darker side of so-called sharenting and its effects on children.
“The allegations against Hannah Hiatt highlight the need for ethical, practical reform of state labour laws nationwide to create protections for children who are being ‘sharented’ as part of a family business,” said Leah Plunkett, the author of Sharenthood: Why We Should Think Before We Talk About Our Kids Online.
This law reform should be in addition to existing state child welfare laws, Plunkett, who is also the executive director of Harvard Law School Online, told CBC News.
WATCH | The dark side of family influencers:
“This woman is oversharing her life,” said L.A.-based forensic psychologist Dr. Leslie Dobson in a TikTok video posted Wednesday.
Dobson noted that people online aren’t just concerned about the toddler flinching, but other videos Hiatt has shared in the past, as well. Viewers online have expressed concern about a video where she and her husband appear not to let James eat in a restaurant, for instance. There’s another video that’s still online where she admits they “spank when necessary.”
As for the investigation, Dobson — who recently went viral herself for a video about why she doesn’t return shopping carts — said, “I don’t know if that’s just social media going after her.”
A term to describe parents sharing their children’s lives online, sharenting has existed since the 2000s, with the rise of so-called mommy bloggers and family influencers. But it increased dramatically during the pandemic, researchers have found.
Hiatt shares her family’s life on popular TikTok, Instagram and YouTube accounts. CBC News has written previously about Hiatt, whose viral “17 diapers” video in October sparked an online trend where moms shared their day-to-day parenting struggles.
In a video posted to TikTok on Oct. 5, the mom of two wanders her house holding a garbage bag, and along the way, finds 17 balled-up diapers spread out among an array of kid drawings, baby wipes, inside-out kid clothes and water bottles.
The video went viral, and the reactions were extreme, ranging from disgust and shame to support and praise. Some early commenters on the original post called it “nasty,” saying there’s “no excuse” not to throw out diapers throughout the day.
Others defended her, pointing out she was five days postpartum, and praising her for sharing the struggles. Some even posted their own “17 diapers” moments in response.
Comparison to Ruby Franke ‘comical’
In another video posted Nov. 30, Hiatt blasts people who have compared her to former YouTuber Ruby Franke, calling it “comical.”
Franke, a mother of six — also from Utah — who dispensed advice to millions via a popular YouTube channel, was sentenced in February to up to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse.
She and her former business partner, mental health counsellor Jodi Hildebrandt, had tried to convince Franke’s two youngest children that they were evil, possessed and needed to be punished to repent.
Crime Story36:15Ruby Franke: The dark secrets behind her Youtube fame
In the Nov. 30 TikTok video, Hiatt called the comparison hilarious, saying that the fact that her children are “happy, healthy, they’re well-nourished, they’re running around playing” should be an indication that “everything is just fine.”
“We live in a world nowadays where people will turn nothing into something. We live in a world where people are so desperate to become TikTok famous, they will post about anything in order to get views for themselves. They don’t care if it’s going to bring someone down with it, they just want to become TikTok famous,” she added.
Hiatt has not posted on any of her accounts since Dec. 3, and has made her Instagram private. In her last YouTube post on Dec. 3, Hiatt shared a nine-and-a half minute “day in the life” video about coming off a nursing night shift and then waking up to parent her children.
Jon Anderson will be charged with moving the Orem school forward following the death of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk on campus last year.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Incoming UVU President Jon Anderson poses for a photo with his family after an event announcing his selection at Utah Valley University in Orem on Friday, July 17, 2026.
BEAVER COUNTY, Utah — A massive community effort is underway as volunteers and Beaver County crews distribute thousands of sandbags to protect homes from the potential path of floodwaters.
After the Cottonwood Fires, residents have been waiting for weeks for relief to come in the form of rain, though officials now warn it may come all at once with an increased risk of flooding and debris flow.
Emergency Service Director Les Whitney believes that the fire has left plenty of debris to bring trouble for residents.
“We got a lot of water. We’re bringing debris with it, so tree branches, tree limbs, logs, lots of different size firewood, and that’s all in the creeks. We’re worried about that plugging up our bridges and stuff, so we have heavy equipment and excavators located in strategic places so that we can keep those bridges open,” said Whitney.
An estimated 140 homes and condominiums were spared from the flames, but remain in the paths of floodwaters.
Residents can also pick up sandbags at the Beaver County Sheriff’s Office or at the Beaver County Rodeo Fairgrounds.
EAGLE MOUNTAIN — An Eagle Mountain man currently on pretrial release in 4th District Court who is accused of abusing his dog has been arrested again for allegedly punching the same animal.
Keith Reaves Davis, 43, was booked into the Utah County Jail on Wednesday for investigation of aggravated cruelty to an animal.
Utah County sheriff’s deputies were called Wednesday afternoon to a grocery store on a report that a man was beating his dog after it had gotten off its leash and was stopped by a bystander, according to a police booking affidavit.
“I reviewed security camera footage from the grocery store, and an individual matching the description of the suspect was seen holding the dog in the air by one paw and repeatedly striking the dog on the right hind leg area. I observed the male strike the dog several times before dropping the dog from approximately 1-2 feet. The strikes appeared to be as hard as the male could hit,” the arresting deputy wrote in the affidavit. “The dog did not cry out or whimper as if the dog was accustomed to the abuse.”
When questioned, Davis “admitted to striking the dog because it was not behaving,” the affidavit states.
An animal control officer who responded to the scene to take custody of the dog noted it was the same dog he had taken from Davis exactly three months earlier during another animal abuse investigation.
In that case, Davis was charged in 4th District Court with aggravated cruelty to an animal, a class A misdemeanor; and public intoxication, a class C misdemeanor, after deputies received a tip from a neighbor that a dog was being abused at Davis’ home, according to charging documents. When questioned, Davis “acknowledged hitting his dog as punishment,” the charges state.
Deputies also reviewed videos that the neighbor had filmed. The neighbor told investigators “there was blood from the dog on the ground of the garage and (the neighbor) can hear the dog screaming as if it’s being hurt. Deputies got the videos from the (neighbor) and you can hear very loudly the dog screaming and crying with a lot of loud banging noises. In one of the videos, you can hear the dog sounding like it is being choked by a collar and is grasping for air,” a police booking affidavit states.
Davis’ next court hearing in the April case is scheduled for July 28.
In their latest booking report, sheriff’s deputies note that they “believe further harm will be inflicted on this dog if it is released back to the male a second time,” and have recommended the dog not be returned to Davis.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
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