Bisexual YouTuber Shane Dawson Fends Off Pedophilia Accusations

YouTube royalty Shane Dawson has come under fire this week after an old episode of his podcast "Shane and Friends" resurfaced. In it, he made jokes about being a pedophile, starting with recounting an interaction with a 6-year-old fan. "And she shows me her Instagrams which are like -- first of all -- I don't know if I'm allowed to say this but, like, she's, like, sexy," Dawson said.

The creator, whose real name is Shane Lee Yaw, released a video on his channel denying the accusations, starting with playing the clip in full, where he said "First of all, let me just say, having sex with children or touching children or anything of that nature is terrible, and you should not do it," before making jokes about masturbating to child pornography on the internet.

"First of all, I don't understand why anybody would be turned on by that," he concluded on the podcast. "But it was sexy."

Nevertheless, news sources have claimed that the clip is "proof" Dawson is a pedophile and made accusations that his male and female partners have been "baby-faced."

"I'm going to start by saying I am not a fucking pedophile. I go on record saying I am not a fucking pedophile. Got it? Great. There's my statement," Dawson declared in his video. "It's disgusting that people are saying I'm a fucking pedophile because of some shitty-ass fucking jokes from six years ago on a podcast."

This is not the first time Dawson has come under fire for insensitive jokes. In 2012, the YouTuber was called out for inviting teenagers onto a Vidcon stage to do what he called "ghetto pranks." which entailed racially insensitive jokes about chicken and booty dances. He also has performed in blackface numerous times in his videos, which he admits now was offensive.

"Back in the day, 2008 to 2012-ish, maybe 2013, that was my thing. I loved the feeling of making somebody shocked and laugh because they couldn't believe what was coming out of my mouth." Dawson said in his video denying the accusations, "I wasn't confident enough to make smarter jokes. I was making the easy jokes. I was playing crazy stereotypical characters. I was doing shit that was racially insensitive. I was doing shit that was homophobic."

Dawson came out as bisexual in 2015. He has also said he was molested in his youth, which he reasserted in the video. "So I think that's why it hurts the most is having my name put next to the word pedophile is actually the most triggering and the most heartbreaking thing I've literally ever seen," he said.

The YouTuber is now claiming on Twitter that the channel that released the first video accusing him of pedophilia was paid to do so by Hollywood powers to stop him from speaking out against sexual violence in the industry.