The Inside Story of the ‘Grooming’ Allegations Against Ava Kris Tyson

On Tuesday, Ava Kris Tyson announced on X that she would “permanently step away from all things MrBeast and social media.” The longtime collaborator and childhood friend of Jimmy Donaldson, the man behind the 305 million subscriber YouTube kingdom with its own line of Walmart-sold chocolate bars and videos that pull in hundreds of millions of views, apologized for any “past behavior or comments if it hurt or offended anyone.” Donaldson issued his own X statement on Wednesday night, saying he’s “aware of the serious allegations” and has “taken immediate action to remove Ava from the company, my channel, and any association with MrBeast.” He also stated he would be launching an independent investigation into Tyson’s actions.

The apologies come in the wake of a flood of new and revisited allegations looking into the 28-year-old’s behavior on social media over the past decade. Tyson is a trans woman and has been the target of anti-LGBTQ+ harassment since her transition in 2023.  Recently, videos have claimed that starting in 2016, Tyson, who was 20 at the time, had been interacting online and exchanging messages that included sexual content with a user named LavaGS since they were 13 years old. Lava, who is now a 20-year-old editor, also took a job with MrBeast and visited the Beast compound. Some online have felt Lava was “groomed” because of their interactions. (Neither Donaldson nor Tyson returned a request for comment before publication.)

In a series of follow-up tweets, Tyson shared that they “never groomed anyone” and specifically mentioned Lava. “In past years, I have learned that my old humor is not acceptable,” Tyson wrote. “I cannot change who I was, but I can continue to work on myself.” 

Lava backed this up by tweeting,  “I am not a victim…Nothing bad happened between me and Kris, people are creating lies around my name.” 

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Lava said he believes that the two creators who originally made videos on the subject twisted his story and misrepresented him in order to push their agenda. Rolling Stone also spoke with those two creators who deny any wrongdoing, believing that Tyson’s actions needed to come to light at any cost. 

LAVA HAS BEEN A FAN OF MrBeast since the early days of the channel, posting a screenshot of the channel’s 50,000 subscriber count on Twitter in 2016 and earning a MrBeast-signed butterfly knife for being a top donor with just $20. That contest earned him a Twitter follow from both Donaldson and Tyson. Around that time, Tyson’s social media persona was “edgy.” In 2017, she posted images online and on her wall (appearing in a MrBeast video) of “lolli,” or drawn child porn, from controversial internet artist Shadman. Tyson has never directly responded to these allegations. 

As a 13-year-old, Lava had been tinkering with the newly released messaging app Discord, learning how to make servers and bots. “Kris reached out to me and saw I was making Discord for people,” Lava says. “He was new to it and wanted a bot that could play Lo-Fi study music which isn’t hard to do.” 

Using what he knew, Lava built Tyson a Discord server for “close friends” and he “just ended up staying in” and “running” it, Lava says. According to Lava, Tyson did not pay for the creation or maintenance of the server, and he did it “solely for the fun of it and helping [build] a community for fans of MrBeast and Kris.” 

Lava claims that Tyson was unaware of his age until 2018, though couldn’t remember the specific details on how it came up. 

In 2018 and 2019, the pair would play games and communicate in private on Discord. They would also talk publicly on X (formerly Twitter). Lava would call Tyson “big boy,” “dad,” “sexy” and at one point asked her to be his  “valentine.” In one reply, Lava asked Tyson about her “hentai addiction,” referring to drawn animé pornography, and in another shared an image of Tyson’s computer from her social media with the caption, “This is a bad way to hide your hentai.” Though Tyson’s side of these conversations has been completely deleted, about two dozen of Lava’s messages remain up on X. 

In one interaction, Tyson tweeted an image of her Patreon and said that if she could get one more sign-up she would be “releasing my noods.” Lava replied with “I’m your first Patreon big boy” and Tyson responded with  “I posted some fire noods for you. Pls no share.” (No nudes were shared.) 

In a Discord server for gaming YouTuber TheDooo, Lava posted an image from Tyson’s group chat of her in front of an American flag with the caption “Cumming for America.” 

To others, these conversations look inappropriate, but it was nothing out of the ordinary to Lava. “I was at the age where I spoke to all my friends like that,” Lava says. “There was nothing more than that. It’s how bros talk…I saw Kris as an older brother because he reminded me a lot of my older brother.” 

In May 2020, Lava says Tyson helped him land a job as a production assistant on Beast Gaming. Lava was a moderator on the channel’s Discord and Reddit, sometimes appearing in videos or helping out behind the scenes. That July, Lava visited MrBeast’s compound in North Carolina, posting a picture on X with Tyson, Donaldson, as well as Trey Yates, who edited for MrBeast from 2018 to 2021 and was the one who hired Lava. 

Lava tells Rolling Stone that he and his parents would “stay at a campground every year” which wasn’t far from the compound, and that his parents joined him on the visit.  

Yates, who was also the one who hired Lava at Beast Gaming, shared his side of the story with Rolling Stone. “He came to visit because he knew Ava from playing games online,” Yates says. “Ava wanted Lava to work for the MrBeast Gaming channel and we were happy to bring him on and pay him.” 

On the grooming allegations, Yates saw the way Lava and Tyson interacted and didn’t think it was strange or out of the ordinary. “There was never any hint or indication that something like that was happening or even, albeit, blatant proof that something like that was occurring,” he says.

LAVA STOPPED WORKING FOR BeastGaming in May 2021, though he and Tyson remained in contact. In July 2023, Tyson came out as trans, which caused a flurry of conversation on the right. One right-leaning creator who had thoughts about Tyson happened to be Prism42, a YouTuber with 800 subscribers who had found the messages between Lava and Tyson on 4chan (though it’s unclear how they ended up there). Prism felt he needed to get this information out so, he claimed, he contacted 50 creators including Turning Point USA CEO Charlie Kirk, former To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen, and YouTube documentarian Mike Clum. There was also EDP445, a creator who in 2021 was caught in a YouTube vigilante’s sting operation messaging a fake 13-year-old. (Clum is currently making a documentary about him.)

“[Prism] began to message me directly with vague details about an unnamed creator who will be exposed and he wanted to see if I could help him,” Clum tells Rolling Stone. “Given the nature of the accusations, I said I would take a look if he sent them to me. He began to send more information about [Ava] Tyson and what seemed to be generally available screenshots or details that weren’t actionable given the work I do.”

When none of those reach-outs gained traction, Prism took another approach. In an interview on the Chud Logic podcast, he said he wanted to emulate the undercover work of disgraced journalist James O’Keefe of Project Veritas who in February settled a suit over false claims of 2020 voter fraud. In June 2023, Prism reached out to Lava in a message seen by Rolling Stone, pretending to want to “interview an anime fan” and that “it would be interesting because you worked on the MrBeast server.” Lava did not answer that message. 

For his next attempt, Prism contacted YouTuber Verdius, an 18-year-old with 600 subscribers, and had him reach out to Lava looking to interview him for an editor position. Verdius tells Rolling Stone that he had “no idea” that he was being set up or that Lava had anything to do with Tyson or MrBeast — he was just looking for an editor. During the “interview,” Lava says, the conversation started with editing questions but quickly devolved into a conversation about internet predators. Prism asked Lava to comment on a video from EDP445 talking about Tyson. 

On June 13, Verdius and Prism each released their own video about the Tyson messages, though neither included information from Lava’s interview with them. Prism repeatedly misgendered Tyson and included multiple factual inaccuracies, including claiming that “the moment he was able to drive,” Lava drove himself to the Beast compound, and that the “cumming” photo was sent personally to Lava on Snapchat, when Lava claims it was a group message. (When reached out for comment, Prism called Rolling Stone “fake news” and hung up.)

Both videos went relatively unnoticed until July 18, when YouTube commentator Adrox released a video aggregating the claims that became algorithmic catnip, currently sitting at over one million views. From there, dozens of creators picked up the story, with the largest being from penguinz0 which is sitting at over seven million views. 

“Prism purposely left out context and did not ask me about specific situations,” Lava said. “There was nothing bad that happened at all, if I would have told him that I would have basically invalidated his whole argument which is why he never asked me these questions.” 

ON SOCIAL MEDIA, PRISM’S CLAIMS that Tyson talked “inappropriately” to a 13-year-old gained viral traction. Anti-LGBTQ+ activists like Tristan Tate, his brother Andrew, and LibsofTikTok have used this story as an excuse to push anti-trans rhetoric. The comment section under Lava’s original tweet denouncing the claims is full of comments saying he was “groomed” and is a “gay victim.” 

In the podcast with Chud Logic, Prism says “I don’t believe men can become women with modern technology but that’s not a point I’m going to make because it is separate from the allegations.” In an interview with Rolling Stone, Verdius said he tried to keep his coverage “unbiased” but posts on Tyson’s private Twitter of her son in heels, and that fact that she “followed the Church of Satan” may have made him “a little bit biased.” 

For those with experience with Tyson, these serious claims seem to be getting co-opted. “All of this is just your typical alt-right influencers trying to push something against trans people because they think they have something,” Yates says. 

Lava “no longer wishes” to be involved with Tyson though they haven’t worked together in years, but still believes, “I’m not a victim.”

“I do not appreciate [the transphobic comments] being attached to my name, I have my own personal beliefs about the situation as everyone should,” Lava says. “I believe attacking someone while using my name is completely uncalled for.”