Beauty guru and famous influencer James Charles apologizes for his “reckless” interactions with minors. He is accused to have sexted and flirted with minors on social media.
Charles, 21 years old and over has 25 million subscribers on Youtube, posted a 14-minute video acknowledging that he indeed flirted with minors who told him that they were over 18. The beauty guru further said that he was being reckless.
“The receipts and the screenshots and the specific details of the interaction really don’t really matter because I f—ed up, and I need to take accountability for my actions and most importantly apologize to the people who were affected by them,” he said. “These conversations should have never happened, point-blank, period. There’s no excuse.”
“I trusted the information that was given to me rather than the information I could have and should have gotten myself,” Charles continued. “As an adult, it is my job and my responsibility to verify who I’m talking to and therefore there was no one to blame for this other than myself. To the guys involved in this situation, I want to say I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I added you, I’m sorry that I flirted with you and I’m really sorry if I ever made you uncomfortable. it is completely unacceptable.”
February this year, a 16-year-old posted two TikTok videos that went viral and were later on reposted on Twitter. The videos accused Charles of grooming, sending unsolicited nude photos, and even pressuring the boy into sexting on Snapchat. When the issue blew up at that time, Charles denied these claims as “completely false” and said that he cut-off communication with the boy after discovering that he was 16, and not 18 as he had been told.
After the first allegations, three more teenagers, aged 17, 15, with the third boy of unspecified age, accused Charles of messaging them despite knowing their age.
With these issues at hand, Charles was fired as the host of Youtube’s reality competition show, Instant Influencer.
