YouTuber Shane Dawson denies 'paedophile' allegations after controversial 'naked babies joke'

Following Logan Paul’s ‘Suicide Forest’ controversy, another YouTuber has been forced to issue an apology after shocking jokes that he made about “naked babies” years ago resurfaced.

Shane Dawson, 29, released a 14-minute apology video last night [10 January], repeatedly telling his fans: “I am not a f***ing paedophile!”

Earlier in the day, Pop Blast had posted a now-deleted YouTube video with audio from Shane’s old podcast ‘Shane And Friends’, in the audio Shane – who has 11million subscribers – discusses meeting an Instagram-famous six-year-old girl, who he describes as “sexy”.

He says in the audio: “I said OK, why do you have so many followers? And she said, ‘Oh I’m a cheerleader’ Oh really? And she shows me her Instagram which are like… First of all, I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this, but she’s like sexy.

“Here’s my justification for paedophilia – people have foot fetishes, people have fetishes about everything, that’s fine, do your thing.

“So why is it when somebody looks at and Googles like ‘naked baby’ on Google and jerks off to it, they can get arrested? I don’t understand that.”

He then adds: “Here’s the worst part of it, I actually went to Google… I didn’t want to see child porn but I just thought okay let me pretend like I’m a paedophile for a second.

“So I typed in ‘naked baby’. First of all I don’t know why anybody would be turned on by that. But they were sexy. I’m kidding.”

At this point, Shane’s co-star says: “You can literally get arrested for saying this.”

The clip soon went viral, with Shane being forced to issue a video statement where he claims that the comments were just “s***ty jokes” that he made in a bid to “shock” his listeners.

Posting a video titled “Regarding the rumours about me today”, Shane says: “I am not a f**king paedophile! Everybody’s saying, ‘Shane, make a statement.’ There’s my statement. I am not a f***ing paedophile.

“It’s disgusting that some people are saying I’m a f**king paedophile because of some s***ty a** f**king jokes on a podcast from six years ago!

“I loved the feeling of making somebody shocked and laugh because they couldn’t believe what was coming out of my mouth. I wasn’t confident enough to make smarter jokes. I was making the easy jokes.

“I was playing crazy stereotypical characters. I was doing s**t that was racially insensitive, I was doing s**t that was homophobic, I was doing s**t that could be considered fat shaming, I was doing some f***ed up comedy stuff that I’m not proud of.

“I have changed so much as a person and as a creative and as a director and a writer. The stuff that I was saying back in those times I would never say now. Ever. Because I don’t think that’s funny. Listening to that clip now, I didn’t laugh.

“I didn’t think it was funny. But when you hear that clip, you hear my co-host laughing, which was my goal. I wanted to always make her shocked and laugh. That was our thing.”

He also says that the “context” of his “jokes” were missing, adding on Twitter: “I grew up. I changed my content. I apologized[sic] countless times for my sh**ty offensive jokes.

“Instead of dragging me down people should use me as an example of a creator who can CHANGE and better themselves and their content. I’m so proud of who i am today.”

YouTube are yet to respond to the comments made in Shane’s podcast and Yahoo Celeb UK have contacted them for comment.

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