Culture

YouTuber James Charles faces stinging backlash over interaction with teen Minecraft streamer

James Charles

James Charles attends The 2019 Met Gala. (Photo by Ray Tamarra/GC Images)

James Charles is once again facing blistering backlash on social media after an interaction with a teenage Minecraft streamer.

The beauty guru and YouTuber came under fire earlier this year when it emerged he had exchanged messages with 16-year-old fans. He later apologised and said he understood his actions were wrong.

However, James Charles found himself at the centre of a fresh controversy on Monday (19 July) after he posted about 17-year-old streamer Purpled on Instagram Stories.

Charles shared a photo of himself wearing a bathrobe and watching Purpled’s stream on Twitch. “About to get glam ft. @realpurpled playing bedwars to keep me entertained,” he captioned the post.

Fans quickly screen-shotted the post and shared it on Twitter, with many suggesting it was inappropriate of Charles to directly tag Purpled in his post when he previously admitted to inappropriate behaviour with teenage boys.

Charles has since deleted the post from his Instagram Stories.

James Charles denied ‘grooming’ a 16-year-old fan in February

The latest controversy comes a little more than three months after James Charles was forced to apologise after he was accused of sending inappropriate messages to underage fans.

In a video titled “holding myself accountable”, Charles admitted that there were two incidents where he learned that the people he was messaging were actually aged 16.

“Today’s video is going to be from the heart, and I’m going to focus on what happened, the conclusions that I’ve come to and most importantly holding myself accountable for my own actions,” Charles said.

“I owe a massive apology to anybody that I’ve hurt or anybody that I’ve made uncomfortable with my actions. And I also want to say I’m sorry to my friends, family and fans that have to watch another one of these videos because you shouldn’t have to and this is really, really embarrassing.”

He went on to admit that the conversations “should never have happened”, noting that he could have tracked down the boys he was talking to on social media to verify their ages.

In February, Charles – who has 25 million subscribers on YouTube – was accused of “grooming” a 16-year-old fan.

According to Vulture, a young man claimed in a TikTok video that Charles sent him unsolicited nudes on Snapchat and pressured him into sexting. The boy said he told the YouTuber that he was just 16 years old.

Responding to the controversy at the time, Charles said the allegations were “completely false”, adding that the boy initially claimed he was 18 years old.

PinkNews has contacted James Charles’ representative for comment.

 

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