James Charles said he takes “full responsibility” for his actions
The well-known Youtuber James Charles, who has over 25 million followers on his channel, admitted in a Youtube video yesterday that he sent two 16-year-old boys sexually explicit messages.
Speaking in a video he posted yesterday, he said: “I do understand that with these videos coming to light, it’s really looking like i’m actively searching for younger people to be in a relationship with. And I just want to say first-hand that that is absolutely not the case.”
Charles said: “My hope has always been to be in a relationship with somebody around my age, or older, that I can relate to,” adding that he has “unfortunately not been able to find that person yet.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsjwRp8_lWA&t=311s
In February this year, the 21-year-old Youtuber was accused of grooming by a teenager. Charles denied these claims, explaining that he thought the boy in question was 18 years old.
This is the second time that Charles became aware that a person he was in conversation with was in fact underage.
Charles said during his 14-minute long video: “I needed to take accountability for my actions, and most importantly, apologise to the people who were affected by them.”
He said: “These conversations should have never happened” in the first place.
The Youtuber said he should have researched the people on social media platforms to discover their true ages, instead of trusting the information he was given by the individuals themselves.
He said the conversations would “never have happened in the first place” if he knew their real ages.
“There is no excuse for it”, Charles said, before saying that he takes “full responsibility” for his actions.
The video, entitled ‘Holding myself accountable’ has now been viewed almost 3 million times on Youtube.
The influencer ended the video by saying that he is going to take some time off social media to “reflect and further educate” himself on the topics.
