By now, I'm sure you've heard this story about a thousand times over as its relevance is slowly depleting. Logan Paul. But, if the headline drew your eye then, you're probably a parent. So welcome, sit back and relax while we get this show on the road because I'm here to tell you why you shouldn't let your kids continue to watch Logan and his brother Jake Paul.
The very short version of events that transpired consist of a YouTube video posted by a user named Logan Paul. Logan is a 22-year-old man who lives his life on YouTube. He is what can be referred to as a vlogger. For those who do not know exactly what that is: a vlogger is someone who will often record videos of themselves throughout their life, (i.e a vlog or video blog) Logan Paul has done that for over a year.
On the instance of the vlog that was released depicted Logan Paul and his small crew of friends going into the Aokigahara, a famous forest located in Japan. This forest is more infamous due to the events that often happen there.
This forest is a place where people of Japan will often go to end their lives. This isn't only known to Japan and it's residence this is a world known fact, which makes it all the more upsetting. Logan Paul knew the risks of going into this forest and was put in the position of finding the body of someone who was recently deceased.
The problem came later when Logan was tasked with what to do with finding this person. He did the wrong thing and continued recording, showing the body and spending an uncomfortable amount of time on the body and the subject of the body. There is so much more to this story that cannot be summed up in the three paragraphs I've included, but you can find a more in-depth recap of the events from The Atlantic here.
To begin this argument, I'm going to preface this with the fact that I do not have children of my own and do not plan to for at least five to 10 years from now, but I do have a younger brother.
My brother is 12 years old and I believe that he fits into the age range of the children that would consume the content that Jake and Logan Paul put out. My brother is a bit different, though in the aspect that he does not consume content from either of the Paul brothers and spends a lot more time focused on people who play video games and talk about video game related content.
I asked for his opinion on the topic and wrote me the following:
"I think that Jake and Logan Paul are uncultured swines. My friends think that Logan paul is cool but I think the opposite. I think the opposite because even though he apologized I think that it was still uncalled for what he did. I didn’t even see the video but hearing about it really upsets me."
Now, you're probably wondering why me, some 19-year-old college student, is trying to explain to you not to let your kids watch this guy that they may really like. I mean, my brother doesn't like him, that must mean something, right? Wrong.
According to SocialBlade.com, a website that gives the ranking of YouTubers from most to least popular based off of subscriber count (i.e the number of people who follow each user), Logan Paul's YouTube Channel ranks at #15 on their list of Top 250 YouTubers in the United States as of January 10, 2018.
What I'm getting at is Logan Paul has an influence. With over 15 million subscribers, Logan Paul has a very large following and a lot of that following include children. To further explore the topic, I took to Facebook to reach out to parents about the controversy and their experience with the Paul brothers. I received a few responses from parents and siblings who had experiences with the Paul brothers.
One parent stated that her boys, "...know them from the tv show bizaardvark. And YouTube. Before the scandal."
Another stated, "My kids love the Paul brothers and are on YouTube all the time..." Later when the scandal was mentioned, she added, "What's the scandal?"
A former classmate of mine talked about her seven-year-old brother and how much he loved the Paul brothers, but something never quite sat right with them for her, stating, "I've never once liked them but it made my little brother so happy to have something in [common] with the other kids in his class."
The difference between the way that those of us under 25 view YouTube and the way that our parents watch YouTube. YouTube to us is like television. We tune in every day to watch our favorite creators and what we watch stays with us the way that a parent's favorite show would stay with them. Unlike watching TV, YouTube is harder for parents to monitor, but consider these few steps that you can take to reach out to your children about the type of content they are consuming:
1. Look into who they're watching
Sometimes those names your kids babble on and on about when they're talking aren't their friends. We live in a day and age where kids feel so much more inclined to talk about the people they watch as if they're their best friends. YouTube and media, in general, is so personal nowadays, especially on the internet. A quick Google search can do a lot to show you who your kids like and what they're telling them.
2. Ask your kids about YouTube
It's okay to drop the name, Logan Paul. Chances are if they are actively watching YouTube videos, their favorite creators have put in their two cents on the subject and they know what happened.
3. Monitor Their YouTube Activity
This can be as simple as also having your child's YouTube account logged in on another device in order to keep an eye on what they're watching and who they're subscribed to.
There's so much more parents could be doing to understand their children in this day and age where it is so important to understand what kinds of social media your children are using and how to understand each. There are children who saw this Logan Paul video and thought that it was okay, please make sure those children weren't your children. Parents need to take a stand against what Logan Paul did. These kids are the future and we need to be sure that they know the difference between right and wrong, especially when it comes to the internet.
