In class we briefly talked about this when we talked about Micheal Jackson, do we disregard his actions when listening to his music. Well the past weekend from when I’m posting this a smaller artist who had a huge following on Youtube named Austin Jones was sentenced to 10 years in prison for predating on underage fans. This story was specifically interesting and I’ve heard things about him before the allegations really blew up due to knowing others who have worked with him. I have a friend who is photographer mostly Youtubers and Musicians and she worked with him during a concert and talked about he would openly say sexual things about underage fans to his friends and people he worked with, she also talked about how he was one of the rudest people she every worked with.  I remember in 2015 people were talking about this but underage fans that were victims were silenced by the community due to lots of higher ups protecting Austin Jones. People who tried to call him out who had a platform, such as Damon Fizzy, were constantly harassed by his management and others trying to protect him. I linked an article that goes into more detail about the allegations and what he did, but I feel this story really shows the influence a young fan’s idol can have on them. These girls were 14 and 15, and the way he would manipulate them was by saying things such as “if you were really my biggest fan you would send the videos.” I’m also going to link the video of Damon Fizzy talking about how he tried to find justice for these victims for years but was constantly silenced by people trying to protect Austin Jones.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2019/05/05/youtube-star-austin-jones-gets-10-year-sentence-child-porn-case/1112770001/