So we're only a month into this year and already its shaping up to be as terrible as its predecessors. Case in point? This headline concerning a YouTuber being persecuted for poession of child porn. Apparently, he would contact young female fans of his and request inappropriate pictures. In order to persuade them, he would claim they needed to do it in order to prove themselves his number one fan. He has pled guilty to the aforementioned charges and faces between five and twenty years.
Although it's a lose connection at best, this story reminds me of the gilded age, specifically the corruption of those in the public eye (then politicians, now internet stars) and the "muckraking" journalists would do to expose them. It also reminds me of how far we've come in terms of the rights of children. In the gilded age, people were just coming to terms with the idea children should not be working the same hours as adults and now not only do we have laws in place against child labor, we have laws protecting children from inappropriate sexual advances. I suppose it goes to show no matter how awful the world is as of late, things have improved.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/juliareinstein/youtuber-austin-jones-pleads-guilty-child-porn
Amazing connection to the gilded age and its corruption. This is very corrupted and sad that people would even do this in order to "prove themselves number one fan". Really shows this generations priorities.
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