#ReportSamPepper

[trigger warning: sexual assault]

It's been a rough year for the Youtube community, then this happens and everyone seems to have finally snapped.

British 'Youtuber' Sam Pepper posted a video to his channel 'pranking' women 'pinching them in the ass' with a fake hand and laughing about it. How this is considered entertainment in the first place is beyond me but that's besides the point. What Sam has done is blatant sexual harassment experienced by women and men all over the world everyday. And he's making a joke out of it. This is not ok. This is not acceptable. And with 2 million followers it's so so worrying how many people will see this and think it's perfectly normal for this to happen.

When your audience consists primarily of teenage girls and you possess the kind of influence Sam has over an audience, you have a duty of care to those watching to be a responsible adult whether you like it or not. Normalising sexual harassment should not be in your remit. Because getting groped on the ass, whether it was a 'joke' or not still counts as sexual misconduct. Placing it in front of your audience as a 'prank' for laughs simply reinforces the idea that women are simply playthings and that a 'cheeky squeeze' should be taken as a compliment. And just because the women in the video are supposedly laughing, doesn't mean there weren't dozens of others who didn't consent to being in the video because they pushed him away or called him out.

It's a touch on the bum now, next it'll be 'let's see if I can grab her boob' or 'shall I try and get my hand up her skirt'. How far are you willing to push for entertainment Sam?

What saddens me most is that this comes at a time in the Youtube community where we seemed to making some progress. After the huge success of Jack and Dean's 'Consent' (with airplay both on Youtube and on national radio), massively important conversations across the platform about sexual assault and Youtube celebrity, and most recently many prominent American Youtubers making their way to the White House to join President Obama in pledging against sexual violence, it's absolutely maddening how one idiot can offset all that work for a joke.

But this community is still fighting back and the reaction to this has been incredible. Many big names have spoken up on Twitter, in the comments of the video and are urging people to not take this lying down. What's great is that these Youtubers are equally matched with their own circle of influence and together they seemed to have stirred up the waters enough to get people reporting the video and Sam.

Their support is obviously welcomed but this video shouldn't have happened in the first place.  It was grossly irresponsible and is not the first time Sam has made this kind of video on his channel, and frankly it makes me sick to think he's gotten away with such behaviour so far. But thankfully the community is realising what many others have already known for a long time.

Normalising and trivialising this kind of behaviour, particularly towards women, is damaging.

Take the video down Sam and step away from Youtube and your 'audience'. We don't want you here.

And if you're wondering what you can do to keep this community fighting against content like this, vote with your views. Remember as a viewer you don't have to sit aside, if you're offended you have every right to say so.  Report the video and spread the hashtag #ReportSamPepper.