YouTube Star Sam Pepper's "Prank" Video Is Sexual Harassment

It’s undeniable that the YouTube community is becoming a powerful and influential force in the entertainment industry. Vloggers appear on magazine covers (such as Seventeen and Fast Company), red carpets, and even on TV in commercials and "Dancing with the Stars." However, the growing community, which averages 1 billion unique visitors each month, has experienced some troubling issues along with its success. Back in June, I covered YouTube’s growing sexual assault problem, which was derived from the blurred lines of consent between content creators and their growing fan bases. Recently, another sexual assault scandal has shaken the community.

Sam Pepper, a former Big Brother contestant and popular YouTuber with over 2 million subscribers, released a video which sparked a large controversy within the YouTube community. In the “prank” video, which has since been taken down by YouTube, Sam approaches women on the street and grabs or pinches their bottoms while asking for directions. In order to do this, he has his hand hidden in his sweatshirt, points to a spot to distract the women, and then films them as they are confused and disoriented by him touching them. Any person who has experienced or witnessed any form of non-consensual contact such as this can agree that this “prank” is anything but funny: it is disturbing and immoral.

Furthermore, this video is hardly an isolated incident. Many of Sam Pepper's videos involve putting women in uncomfortable positions in order to gain views, such as “How To Make Out With Strangers.” In this video, Sam approaches women on a boardwalk and coerces them into kissing him. The majority of these women seem clearly  uncomfortable and pressured not only by his embrace, but also by the added attention of the camera in what amounts to a completely unfair situation. His most misogynist video, though, is arguably how to “How to Pick Up Girls with a Lasso,” in which he physically restrains unknowing women with a rope. Not only would this simply be an alarming situation for any person on the street, but the fact that Pepper has used it as a means of entertainment and gaining fame is disgusting and reprehensible.

The backlash following “Fake Hand Ass Pinch Prank” from YouTube viewers and other content creators alike has been immediate. Laci Green, a popular sexual education YouTuber, wrote an open letter on her blog and asked fans to share it as a petition. In her letter, Green states, “We are deeply disturbed by this trend and would like to ask you, from one creator to another, to please stop.  Please stop violating women and making them uncomfortable on the street for views.” In an attempt to get him to understand the ramifications and real-world significance of his actions, Green adds, “While it may seem like harmless fun, a simple prank, or a ‘social experiment,’ these videos encourage millions of young men and women to see this violation as a normal way to interact with women. 1 in 6 young women (real life ones, just like the ones in your video) are sexually assaulted, and sadly, videos like these will only further increase those numbers.” The petition has since been shared by YouTube heavyweights and fans alike, even causing #ReportSamPepper to trend worldwide after the video’s release.

Unfortunately, events since the video’s release have been even more disturbing. Once the video was taken down, Pepper  released a video entitled “The Reveal,” in which he alleges that the video was a social experiment intended to shed light on the sexual assault of men. In the video, Pepper states, “Men have the highest suicide rate in the world and I think a lot of the time it’s because we’re told to hide our feelings and get on with it, women are allowed an outlet, they have people on both sides trying to protect them."

This response video has been met with warranted outrage because it comes across as a completely disingenuous, ridiculous way for Pepper to backtrack. In what way does touching women inappropriately help shed light on the sexual abuse men face? His “reveal” alleges that he had consent from all these women in order to do this. However, as Laci Green states in her video about this issue, he is referring to consent forms signed after the act in order to use the footage. When contacted, these women did not say they gave him consent to touch them, indicating that this “staged and scripted” farce that Pepper is trying to push is a complete lie. Furthermore, Sam’s history of using women as sexual objects in order to gain views hardly bolsters his case.

Similarly to previous instances of sexual harassment in the YouTube community, the attention garnered by this issue has caused four women to come forward as victims of sexual assault by Pepper. In an interview with Buzzfeed, the fourth victim states that she met Pepper on his tour in 2013 in Toronto. She had tweeted at him saying she was going, leading to communication via Facebook, in which he mostly tried to ensure that she would be alone if they were to meet. She met him in his hotel room before the concert, as she was a fan, and he forced her to perform oral sex on him when she refused to have intercourse with him. She states, “He continued to do things to me against my will and then forced me to give him head, nearly choking me,” she said. “Afterwards, he threw me a napkin and told me that it was time to go.” Later, after the concert, when she asked to go home, Pepper told his driver to go back to the hotel (against her wishes), and proceeded to pin her down on the bed, hold her wrists, and rape her, laughing as she tried to say “no.”

This is one of the many shocking stories that has come out regarding Sam Pepper’s abuse. Many have reached out to Laci Green, who, because she is spearheading this campaign, has herself received threatening e-mails from Pepper. Others have posted their testimonials -- which even include accusations of Pepper soliciting nude pictures from minors -- to YouTube and Tumblr pages.

To date, Pepper has been been dropped by his network, Collective Digital Studio, the Youtubers React Channel, as well as Vidcon, a convention for Youtube creators. In order to protect the content on YouTube, do not support content creators like Pepper, speak out if something has happened to you, and support regulation on YouTube to prevent content like this from ever being uploaded again.