Jonathan Jacob Meijer, Serial Sperm Donor

Submission 3,360

About

Jonathan Jacob Meijer is a Dutch man known for being a serial sperm donor, purportedly being the father of roughly 550 children. In March 2023, a civil lawsuit from the Dutch DonorKid Foundation was filed against Meijer for allegedly increasing the risk of accidental incest. Discourse and memes soon surfaced about Meijer on social media, leading to the discovery of Meijer's YouTube channel consisting of music videos, advice videos and crypto insights, among other videos featuring him and his notably long blonde hair.

Online History

Jonathan Jacob Meijer's online presence started in 2010 when he uploaded his first YouTube^[1] video on March 25th, 2010, to his YouTube^[2] channel that's under his own name. His first video was a song called "Lonely," which gained over 500 views in 13 years. On July 8th, 2013, Meijer uploaded a YouTube^[3] video called "Stop consumeren en start investeren – Bitcoin + zilver + aandelen" in which he discussed cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and urged his viewers to invest. The video gained roughly 1,000 views in 13 years and was the start of many video uploads related to crypto (shown below).

Going into the 2010s, the content on Meijer's YouTube channel shifted between subjects, ranging from philosophy to physical fitness to eating raw meat. The bulk of Meijer's videos received under 1,000 views, however, in 2019, some of his videos earned upwards of 10,000 views. For instance, on January 31st, 2019, he uploaded a YouTube^[4] video that received roughly 14,000 views in four years, being his most viewed video as of March 2023 (shown below).

Following

By March 30th, 2023, Meijer's YouTube^[2] channel had amassed roughly 4,500 subscribers.

Civil Lawsuit

On March 26th, 2023, the Dutch DonorKid Foundation published a statement on its website.^[5] It was titled, "Donorkind Foundation and duped mother go to court to stop mass donor," and stated that summary proceedings had begun to ban a seed donor who had "at least 550 children." The donor in question was Jonathan Jacob Meijer who, according to the statement,^[5] "delivered his seed to at least 13 clinics at home and abroad [in Kenya]" as well as "lied about the number of children he has fathered" by using "meeting platforms and social media." Meijer was violating the rules of Dutch sperm clinics, which only allow one man to donate up to 25 children (or up to 12 families) to prevent "inbreeding, incest and mental health problems" for the children involved.^[5]

According to news publications like Vice,^[6] Meijer was blacklisted in 2017 after the Dutch Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology revealed that he had fathered more than 100 children via 11 clinics in the Netherlands, according to a Dutch News^[7] article published in August 2017.

Online Reaction

After the Dutch DonorKid Foundation's March 2023 statement and the coverage from the news outlets, drama-related Twitter pages started to spread the news, such as the Twitter^[8] account @raphousetv2 on March 29th, 2023, whose infographic gained roughly 39,000 likes in one day (shown below, left). Viral reactions surfaced from the tweet, including a reply sent by Twitter^[9] user @Billsfandiehard on March 29th who compared Meijer to Nick Cannon and gained roughly 5,700 likes in two days (shown below, right).

On March 30th, 2023, YouTuber^[9] Cr1TiKaL posted a video called "He Has Over 500 Children" that was about Meijer and his lawsuit. In one hour, the video received roughly 265,000 views and 20,000 likes (shown below).