By the time you finish reading this article, two people in the United States will be sexually assaulted. Around 1 in 5 women and 1 in 33 men will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime in the US alone. While sexual assault does happen to both males and females, 95% of the reported cases are males taking advantage of females.
The legal definition of sexual assault in its lowest form begins with the touching of a person’s sexual parts including breasts, genitals, and buttocks without their consent. It can then escalate to violent acts such as rape.
Upon being found guilty of any sex crime, the convict must register as a sexual predator under California’s statute Megan’s Law. The public has access to the person’s name, address, and the offense they committed. This law is California specific, but other states have similar laws regarding sexual predators.
A sexual assault story has recently surfaced regarding popular British YouTuber Sam Pepper. Pepper, known for his prank videos on YouTube, made a controversial three video series. The first video consisted of him grabbing unsuspecting women without their consent. He received very negative backlash from viewers, fellow YouTubers, and celebrities. The hash tag #ReportSamPepper spread across various social media sites in hopes to bring awareness to Pepper’s extremely inappropriate behavior.
Pepper then released a second video where a female was grabbing males without consent. This video also received the same amount of negative responses as the first video even when the gender roles were switched.
The final video released in this series was titled “The Reveal” in which Pepper claimed these videos were a “social experiment” attempting to bring light on sexual assault against males and how it is almost ignored compared to cases involving females. All three of these videos have since been removed from YouTube for violating the terms of service.
Despite Pepper’s claim, people did not believe these videos were social experiments. Pepper has a history of this behavior and has made videos like this on his channel in the past. He has made videos showing him lassoing women and not letting them go, handcuffing himself to women and not releasing them until they give him a kiss, and forcefully kissing random women on the streets.
Since these videos were released, many serious allegations against Sam Pepper have become public, including a story where Pepper was sexually involved with one of his underage fans. These are just accusations, but they are being investigated by the police. He has been dropped by his representatives and banned from YouTube conventions such as Vidcon.
But Sam Pepper is not the only one committing these terrible crimes. There are many people on the internet and in the world in general manipulating and forcing others to engage in sexual activities against their will.
It is up to us to stop sexual assault. We can start with educating young adults on the proper way to treat men and women. From there, we have to strongly encourage people to report cases of sexual assault and eliminate the social stigma of coming forward. We cannot keep letting these victims live in fear of speaking up. We cannot blame the victim for the crimes committed against them. We have to provide them with the help and safety they need. Finally, there has to be harsh and immediate punishment for any sexual predators. Sexual assault is a horrendous crime that affects too many people in the world. These cases should not be taken lightly.