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YouTube used to be a place where people who didn't fit into "normal" social situations could express their feelings elsewhere, away from physical people and interact over the internet. YouTubers used to be awkward and not the coolest of people. They used to care about content and not their looks and having a HD camera. They used YouTube as the one place in the world they could be themselves. I've stood back and watched it change over the years. People gaining subscribers, realising that YouTube can actually link to fame. Doing stupid things is what people want to see, gaining a bigger audience is the only thing that's important. It's all about numbers - subscriber count, views, like to dislike ratio, comments.
What comes with power is responsibility. When people realise that they're getting big and well-known on this website, they start taking on new responsibilities. They're role models now, they set an example. Most YouTubers audience are females aged 13-17, which says a lot. Recently, from last year, YouTubers have been accused of sexual harrassment. They've been taking advantage of minors, their fans, raping people, not understanding the meaning of consent. I've watched some of my most beloved and favourite YouTubers disappear completely from social media after being accused of these things. It's heart breaking to see. It's even more heart breaking to find out that all these accusations are true.
Sam Pepper made a "prank" video where he went around on the streets pretending to ask for directions, pinching girls bums and acting like it wasn't him. He recieved every bit of negative feedback he deserved. Social media went wild will hateful comments about his actions. This encouraged a girl I know to make a video about a famous YouTuber, VeeOneEye (Jason). In this video, she explained how she and Jason started talking when she was 15 and he was 20. They stayed a night together and he tried to get her drunk, and took advantage of her. She clearly states his intentions were to have sex.
This caused an outrage over twitter, addressing a lot of famous faces on YouTube, many of Jason and the girl's fans. People were harrassing Jason over twitter and the name "Jason" itself was trending. He was asked to move out of his house by his roommates and was banned from the major British YouTube event, Summer In The City. The girl encouraged others to come forward if they had also been harrassed in any way by Jason, causing a lot of people to speak.
The thing with this is that Jason's friends, including myself, knew of most of this. Everyone had heard rumours about Jason and underaged girls in some form. A lot of people are told to stay away from him. He is often used as a prime example when explaining that YouTubers are not who they appear to be. Jason made a responding video explaining his upbringing with a family who are against sex before marriage, alcohol, drugs, etc. Explaining that he never was told what's right or wrong when it comes to these things. This obviously received negative feedback as every 20 year old should know that having sex with 15 year olds in a country where the legal age for sex is 16 is wrong. Especially drunk 15 year olds.
Many girls have come forward about his abuse. I would also like to say that I am one of the girls he's manipulated into doing sexual activities with. At the time, I thought nothing of it, but what he does is make you feel very special. He said he wanted a relationship with me, and then told me I had too many problems. He only spoke to me upon hearing rumours about my sexual activity. He constantly tried doing sexual things with me, which I admittedly didn't refuse. However, I was 15 and he was at least 20, and I would like to make it clear that we didn't actually have sex. Although, those were definitely his intentions.
The point of this post is to raise awareness of this topic, that after coming out about sexual abuse, you will receieve a lot of support as the girl who made the video did. Everyone is working on making a change, so that YouTubers do not abuse their power and realise that they are role models to young people, and they must behave like role models.
Here is a link to the video made by the girl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z2R-DA7ryY
And here is the video response from Jason: http://youtu.be/0M1DrxM8srw
