In interviews with the YouTuber and journalist Dead Domain, Anderson’s children Isaac, John, and Miriam revealed that Steven and Zsuszanna often severely abused them, oftentimes whipping them with an electrical cord until they were covered in bruises. Other such forms of abuse included beating the soles of their feet with paddles, forcing them to eat bad-tasting oatmeal and threatening to make them eat their vomit if they threw up the oatmeal, putting them in freezing-cold showers, and other forms of abuse that would be considered a war crime if performed on prisoners of war. As of September 2024, Miriam is actively on the run from her parents at seventeen years of age.
Anderson also made his children wear long sleeves and pants regardless of weather in order to hide their wounds from his and his wife’s constant assaults on them (an unfortunately common act by abusive parents). On one occasion, Miriam recounted when she and her siblings were watching Ninjago and John’s white shirt began to turn red from a bleeding wound inflicted upon him by Steven.