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ProJared Responds to Claims He Solicited Nude Photos From Fans

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3 months ago

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  • YouTuber ProJared responded to accusations that he solicited sexually explicit photos from fans, with at least two saying they were underage at the time.
  • ProJared said that in the past, he exchanged photos with consenting adults, but denied ever doing so with minors.
  • He also included evidence to support his side of the story and said his accusers may have made up their claims in hopes of gaining money and attention.
  • He responded to claims from his ex-wife who said he cheated by saying the two were already breaking up at the time of the alleged affair.

ProJared Breaks Silence

YouTuber and gamer ProJared responded to accusations that he solicited sexually explicit photos from underage fans.

Jared Knabenbauer, who goes by ProJared online, posted a 42-minute-long video to YouTube titled, “You Were Lied To.” Back in May, he was accused by two fans, identified as Chai and Charlie, of soliciting nudes from them while they were 16-years-old. Chai claimed Knabenbauer was aware of his age, while Charlie said the YouTuber never asked for their age. Up until now, Knabenbauer has stayed relatively silent on the matter. 

These accusations surfaced as Knabenbauer announced his divorce from his now ex-wife Heidi O’Ferrall. At the time O’Ferrall had accused him of infidelity and abuse. 

In Knabenbauer’s video, however, he denied these accusations and said he has proof to back him up. He acknowledged that he did exchange photos with some fans, but said they were always consenting adults. 

“What this all came down to was people saying that I was exchanging nudes with fans on Snapchat and Tumblr and a lot of people want to know if I did any of that,” he said. “Yeah, I did. And I always made it clear that it was for consenting adults only.” 

ProJared Addresses Chai’s Claim

Knabenbauer went on to break down the accusations that came from Chai and Charlie. He pointed out that both have deleted their initial accusation tweets against him, and dove into Chai’s story first. Knabenbauer said he has no memory of ever interacting with Chai and added that the things Chai claimed he did sound out of character.

Then he broke down a timeline of Chai’s accusations, which Chai said happened in between March and July 2016. This period overlaps with a time when Knabenbauer’s Tumblr account was hacked. 

It also lines up with a very important part of Chai’s life that he wrote about in an apparent Medium post. Chai said he suffered a severe head injury playing basketball in November 2015 which caused him to have a gap in memory for the following six months. The injury led to hallucinations and voices in his head, which he said eventually told him to do violent things.

He said these symptoms were part of psychosis, which reached a tipping point in August 2016 when he told his mom that he would kill her if she did not take him to the hospital. After this hospitalization, he eventually became better.

“To reiterate, Chai’s accusation was that the things I supposedly did happen between March 2016 and May 2016,”  Knabenbauer said. “Chai also states that he has no memory during this exact same period and hallucinations continuing until August 2016.” 

Because of this memory gap, he called Chai’s trustworthiness into question. He also added that there could be a possibility that Chai lied about this medical situation, but if he lied about that, Knabenbauer said that would also impact his trustworthiness. 

He also noted that if this did happen while his Tumblr was hacked, the hacker would have likely leaked screenshots of their conversations at the time. Neither Chai nor Knabenbauer said they have screenshots or evidence of their conversations.

ProJared Responds to Charlie’s Claim

Knabenbauer then went on to say that he remembers interacting with Charlie, and said he does have screenshots from their encounters. Charlie did post some when making their initial claim, but Knabenbauer said they left out key details. 

A notable screenshot that Knabenbauer presents shows him asking Charlie for their age, and Charlie saying they are over 18. In their initial accusation, as well as in an interview with the Daily Beast, Charlie said they were not asked their age.

Screenshot via ProJared

Knabenbauer then continues to say that Chai and Charlie emailed their stories to creator collective Game Grumps. He said that when he saw the email that they sent to them, he actually reached out to apologize. The two, however, were not happy with the apology, despite the fact that a screenshot shows they specifically requested it.

Screenshot via ProJared

The two also emailed their stories to Normal Boots, Knabenbauer’s old collective that he parted ways with in May. This email did not include an apology request. 

As far as his situation with Normal Boots, Knabenbauer clarified their decision to part ways.

“I was not fired,” he said. “I resigned so that everyone else at Normal Boots wouldn’t get dragged down with me.”  

Knabenbauer closed this part of the video by calling out his accusers’ honesty once more since they wrote their emails and discussed their accusations together. 

“How can we trust Chai when his cohort Charlie was already lying?” he asks. 

Knabenbauer believes they did this for money and attention. He accuses the two of “e-begging” as they both linked things like their Paypal and Amazon wishlists on their social profiles. 

Accusations Against Pamela Horton

The video continues to address another accusation that came from an adult woman named Pamela Horton, who is a part of ToasterGhost. She claimed that at a gaming event they met at, which Knabenbauer said was in 2015, he looked up her nudes and showed them forcefully to other people. She went on to say that after this, he continued to be disrespectful and make lewd comments about her. 

Knabenbauer said he was especially shocked by this because not only does he have no memory of it, but he claimed that since their meeting at this event, they had been friendly with one another. He went on to mention three men who would have been at this alleged incident, and two confirmed to him that they have no memory of it.

He then dug further into her accusations to try to find out a specific timeline of when she said he made the lewd comments. He ends up saying that she is referring to an E3 panel with Horton, MatPat, and himself. Knabenbauer said that he has never been on a panel with either of them or even on a panel at E3, but still finds it hard to believe that Horton would flat out lie about this. 

“I think this is something that probably actually happened to her, and she was treated with some amount of disrespect, but she’s putting me in the place of someone who actually treated her this way,” Knabenbauer said.

Users on Reddit have pointed out that Horton did do a panel at E3 with MatPat that did not include Knabenbauer. It included Kyle Bosman, who many think resembles Knabenbauer. Some wonder if she confused the two. This, however, is unconfirmed. Horton has not made any accusations against Bosman, nor has she said anything about mixing the two up. 

ProJared’s Comments About His Marriage

One of the last things Knabenbauer addressed are the cheating allegations regarding his marriage, which he claimed are false. 

“No cheating happened,” he said. “I told my wife at the time I no longer wanted to be with her in October 2018. I was refused. I was told no. I was denied. I had my career threatened. I felt controlled.” 

He went on to say that his relationship with O’Farrell, as well as with Holly Conrad, the woman O’Farrell alleges he had an affair with, should not be public business. He also requests that people stop spreading misinformation and stop harassing him online. 

Reactions to Video

Both Chai and Charlie have set their social accounts to private and have made no public comments. Chai’s bio says “Offline for a while.” Meanwhile, Charlie’s bio says that the fact they locked their account “doesn’t mean shit i just don’t want more death threats lmao.”

Pamela responded to the video in one tweet saying, “I know my truth.” 

O’Farrell has since posted two long Twitter threads about the video. In the first, posted Tuesday afternoon, she said his insistence that she is lying is “beyond dehumanizing.” She also added that they did not break up in October, they just had a conversation about it.

She also said their real divorce and breakup was not until February, and that up until then, they were trying to work on their relationship. 

She added that he was with Conrad long before she even realized.

She said she could not believe he was “capable of lying on this level” and called the alleged lies “terrifying.” 

In her second thread, she said the new video has caused an “an avalanche of fresh hatred.”

As far as public reaction, Knabenbauer’s subscriber account has gone up since he posted his video. The video currently has over one million views.

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YouTube Family Vlogger Petitions FTC Ahead of 2020 COPPA Enforcement

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2 weeks ago

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November 7, 2019

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  • YouTube will soon remove personalized ads from children’s content after the Federal Trade Commission determined that it had violated children’s privacy laws by placing targeted ads over kids’ content.
  • Following YouTube’s announcement, creators like Jeremy Johnston of J House Vlogs are now bringing their concerns directly before the Federal Trade Commission during their open window, which closes Dec. 9.
  • Among other concerns, creators are asking the FTC to provide a better definition of “child-directed” content out of fear that they may still lose ads on video that may be deemed “attractive,” but not necessarily directed at children.

YouTubers Lobby FTC

Children’s content creators and family bloggers on YouTube are lobbying against upcoming changes to an online child privacy law, which they say will affect the quality of their videos and how those videos make money.

As of Thursday afternoon, a Change.org petition arguing against the changes has attracted more than 38,000 signatures. The petition was started by Jeremy Johnston who, along with his wife Kendra, run the family vlogging channel J House Vlogs.

In September, YouTube announced that it would be changing the way it displays ads on children’s content. The changes are meant to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act after the Federal Trade Commission and New York Attorney General Letitia James accused YouTube of illegally collecting personal information from children to show them targeted ads.

Regarding ads, YouTube uses two types: general and personalized ads. General ads appear regardless of a user’s viewing history, but personalized ads look at a user’s viewing history to present products or services a user may be more interested in. 

Because of the changes to COPPA, YouTube said it will remove all personalized ads on children’s content in January. The FTC also said it would hear public comments until Oct. 23 before enforcing new COPPA guidelines.

As a result, Johnston has lobbied the Federal Trade Commission in an attempt to add exceptions to children’s content creators. 

Johnston Speaks with Rogue Rocket

In an interview with Rogue Rocket, Johnston said he filed a request to extend the FTC’s public comments period until Dec. 9, which was later approved.

Johnston told Rogue Rocket he made the filing after meeting with the FTC. During the meeting, he said the commission was unaware that personalized and general ads paid different amounts to creators. 

While Johnston said he thought the FTC was legitimately trying to do what’s best for children, he also said FTC was largely unaware of creators’ concerns beforehand. 

Regarding his own channel, Johnston said he and his wife have already decided to pull the plug on a planned children’s channel called J House Jr.

While he said big creators can find other ways to generate money, through brand deals or other projects, he also said losing personalized ads can be devastating for channels.

“That isn’t going to be available for the small creators in the future, and that’s a big reason why I’m speaking out,” he told Rogue Rocket. “I wouldn’t be doing all of this if it was just about my channel. But I’m considering other people like me or other people five years, 10 years from now who want to get going. I’m so grateful that when I took that leap of faith to say ‘I’m going to do YouTube full-time’ that ad revenue made that possible.”  

Although Johnston said he understands the need for parents to have control in their kids’ privacy online, he said the new changes won’t do that. 

“We care about children’s privacy,” he said. “We are just saying that this regulation is going to do more harm than good. I think it’s really important that we all recognize that the majority of parents are letting their children watch YouTube main.”  

“We’re wanting parents to continue making that choice with the government coming in and overriding the parents’ decision,” he continued. “If parents were really concerned with personalized ads, it raises the question, why are they all letting their children watch YouTube main?” 

What’s in the Petition?

Specifically, the creators and supporters who’ve signed that petition are asking the FTC to provide a statement on how COPPA will be enforced against creators, as well as clarify the definition of “child-directed” content. 

One major concern for creators is the specific use of the language “child-directed.” Currently, the FTC is debating whether or not to add “child-attractive” content, ie. content that is marketed to a general audience but could still be considered friendly for children to watch. 

The petition also requests that the FTC delay enforcement any changes until it finishes reviewing COPPA.

It ends by asking the FTC to encourage parents to use apps like YouTube Kids instead of forcing creators to turn off personalized ads.

According to Bloomberg, YouTube Kids currently only attracts about 1% of YouTube’s total audience even though kids’ content is the most-viewed on YouTube.

Why Is This Important to Viewers?

While some viewers find ads annoying, many creators make money by placing ads in front of their videos.

According to Tubefilter, general ads can bring in anywhere from 60 to 90% less than personalized ads. Creators fear that the loss of revenue could, in turn, hurt the quality of their videos. 

In fact, Johnston says a lot of the money made from J House Vlogs videos goes back into making quality content on the channel.

In addition to that, creators also worry their content could be fined for violating COPPA, with that fine being up to $42,530. Creators like Johnston and Derral Eves say that these concerns could also result in more mature content on YouTube. 

See what others are saying: (Bloomberg) (Tubefilter)

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Shane Dawson Accused of Using Tati Westbrook and James Charles Drama as Clickbait Amid Success of Massive Beauty Launch

Published

2 weeks ago

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November 4, 2019

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  • Shane Dawson’s collaboration with Jeffree Star officially launched online and in stores Friday.
  • Fans crashed the website within seconds and stood in line for hours to get their hands on the products, which have since completely sold out. 
  • Amid all the craze surrounding the launch, Dawson is also facing criticism from viewers who say he used the Tati Westbrook- James Charles drama for clickbait in the trailer since it has yet to be mentioned in the series.

Shane Dawson Beauty Launch 

Shane Dawson and Jeffree Stars’ highly anticipated makeup and merchandise collaboration finally launched Friday and quickly took over the internet, meanwhile, fans are still wondering if YouTube beauty drama will be included in upcoming episodes of his series. 

The YouTubers released two eyeshadow palettes, a collection of liquid lipsticks, a line of merchandise, and more. But fans had completely overwhelmed the website before the company behind it, Shopify, could even finish listing each item for sale. 

Minutes after the scheduled launch time, Star tweeted that the site had crashed, adding “Shane’s in a ball crying on the floor.” 

Issues persisted for hours, with many users complaining about the site crashing, error messages, missing confirmation emails, and other problems.

Those who chose to purchase the palette at their local Morphe stores also had to wait in huge lines to get their hands on any of the products. 

As many people expected, the Conspiracy palette was completely sold out by the middle of the day, with the rest of the line selling out shortly after.

Although we don’t know the exact figures just yet, it seems the launch has already broken records according to Jeffree Star, who said the statistics will be released in the coming days. 

Fans Accuse Shane of Clickbait 

The build-up for the release was of course set up by each installment of Dawson’s docu-series, “The Beautiful World of Jeffree Star.” Of the six parts that have been released so far, the lowest viewed episode sits at over 14 million views, while all of the episodes combined make up over 110 million views. 

Despite the success of the episodes so far, some fans are upset that Dawson has not included any footage from the infamous Tati Westbrook and James Charles drama. 

As you might remember, massive beauty influencer James Charles lost nearly 3 million subscribers in May after his former mentor Tati Westbrook posted her infamous “Bye Sister” video, publicly announcing the end of their friendship. One stand out moment in the video involved her claim that Charles uses his celebrity status to sexually manipulate straight men. 

Star and Dawson both publicly expressed their support for Westbrook during the whole ordeal, with Star even going so far as to call Charles a predator.  After apologies and explanations from Charles, Star, and Westbrook, the drama eventually blew over and Charles’ subscriber count bounced back.

Fans were hoping to see more about Star and Dawson’s involvement and opinions on the situation in his series and it seemed like they were going to get exactly that. In his trailer for the docu-series, Dawson included footage of him reacting to Westbrook’s initial video and Charles’ subscriber loss.

As of now, the series has seemed to move in chronological order without any mention of the drama, which has left some fans feeling disappointed. Some have even accused Dawson of using the incident as clickbait for views.

Some suggested that Dawson excluded the drama out of respect for those involved, especially since Westbrook and Charles both recently released products last month. Others said it would be harmful to bring it all back up again after everyone has seemingly moved past it. 

Fans also said it was likely a decision to focus on the business aspect of the beauty industry rather than the drama. They specifically pointed to a poll Dawson posted early on in the series asking viewers what they wanted to see more of, though viewers seem to be split on what the results actually were. Meanwhile, others pointed out that there are still more episodes set to come.

See what others are saying: (Business Insider) (PopBuzz)(Mashable)

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YouTuber Jaclyn Hill Defends “Canceled” Halloween Costume

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3 weeks ago

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October 29, 2019

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  • Critics are slamming beauty YouTuber Jaclyn Hill for appearing at her Haloween party this weekend as a “canceled” version of herself. 
  • Some thought she was making light of her recent lipstick scandal and mocking customers who were upset with her over the failed product launch. 
  • Hill addressed the backlash, saying the costume was not about her customers or her lipsticks but instead was a comment about the community and cancel culture.

Jaclyn HIll’s Costume 

Beauty YouTuber Jaclyn Hill has responded to backlash over her Halloween costume – a “canceled” version of herself. 

Hill hosted a party at her temporary home in Los Angeles, California Saturday night, which was packed with dozens of her friends and fellow YouTubers like James Charles and Nikita Dragun. 

But the main talk of the party online was Hill’s costume. The beauty guru wore a black dress with red letters that spelled out “SHE’S CANCELED” and “JACLYN HILL IS CANCELED.” She also sported some fake wounds and blood to add to the Halloween look.

Many found this costume to be a risky choice considering the recent scandal surrounding her lipstick line launch this past June. Customers complained of lumpy lipsticks embedded with hairs or what they thought might have been shards of plastic. Others believed that she might have been selling old lipsticks that were moldy and unsafe to use.

Hill later denied those claims and apologized to her customers. She gave explanations for defective products, like cotton gloves used in production causing the hairs and high temperatures during shipping affecting consistency. The whole ordeal came to an end when she issued refunds, though she never recalled the product as many had asked and promised they were still safe to use. 

She wasn’t the only one who was inspired by the lipstick controversy. Drama YouTuber Sebastian Williams even appeared at the event wearing “Jaclyn Hill’s harry lipsticks as horns.”

Mixed Reactions 

A lot of social media users saw Hill’s costume as a funny way to own her controversy and poke fun at herself. 

Others, however, took issue with her making light of the situation. Some called it tacky, while others argued that it was disrespectful towards customers who had been let down by her lipstick launch. 

Jaclyn Hill Defends Costume

After seeing some of the backlash, Hill took to Twitter to explain that her costume wasn’t aimed at her customers. 

“This costume has NOTHING to do with my fans or customers,” she tweeted. “It has to do with ‘cancel culture’ that has become so popular. I adore my subscribers & they know that!”

She made a similar statement in another post saying, “A lot of people are missing the point. This has nothing to do with my lipsticks. That’s a whole different situation. This costume was supposed to be about the community. About Influencers & cancel culture. But people can read into it however they want obviously.” 

In an Instagram post, she wrote a more detailed caption about the intentions behind her costume, saying, “Over the last several years the internet has become more & more cruel & has developed what we now call “cancel culture” not one day has gone by in over 2 years where I have not seen ‘you’re canceled’ online.”

“I wanted to create a look showing the glam side of this industry & the ugly,” she added. “So here is it. You want me canceled? You got it baby. And I know my “haters” are going to HATE this costume. But that’s okay, I love you anyway.”

Hill also address a less serious element of the costume that critics seemed to also take issue with: spelling. One tweet went viral, slamming the beauty guru for using one “L” instead of two on her costume. 

She responded to that with a Google search of the proper way to spell the term, which notes that both are correct, but one “L” is more favored by Americans while two are more commonly used in British English.  

In response to the viral tweet, she wrote “OMGGGG! Over 100k favorites??!! Does this mean im famous!!? I love my illiterate ass.” Then in a reply to fan defending her, she wrote “I have to laugh at all these tweets about my ‘misspelling’ people will find anything!! Even when google & the dictionary proves it correct, they still gotta reach.” 

See what others are saying: (E! News) (PopBuzz) (Insider)

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