Who Is Shane Dawson? YouTube Star Accused Of Pedophilia Over Google Search

YouTube star Shane Dawson came under fire Wednesday for alleged pedophilic comments made on a podcast several years ago, Buzzfeed reported. The backlash against Dawson was large enough to spawn a Twitter moment documenting reactions across the popular social network.

Dawson is a YouTube veteran, having run channels on the website since 2008. He has parlayed his online success into other projects, such as a film called “Not Cool” that he directed and starred in, as well as multiple books. His vlogging channel, just called “shane,” has almost 12 million subscribers.

A summary of the comments Dawson made on his “Shane and Friends” podcast four years ago is below. Dawson, who said the comments were made in jest, was describing an encounter with a six-year-old girl who said she had an Instagram following.

Dawson posted a 15-minute apology video to his vlogging channel Wednesday. In the video, he said he was not being serious in the podcast conversation and did not actually conduct a Google search for naked babies.

The accusations against Dawson come at a time of increased scrutiny of problematic behavior by YouTube stars. The massive controversy against Logan Paul for his video about a Japanese suicide forest resulted in the star’s YouTube channel being removed from highest tier ad platform, Polygon reported.

Additionally, an upcoming feature film starring Paul was put on hold by YouTube.