Stumbling across a video by popular YouTuber Logan Paul, a 13-year-old boy thinks nothing of hitting play.
Paul is a 22-year-old vlogger from Ohio in the US with 15 million YouTube subscribers. He also sells merchandise with the slogan Be A Maverick. This is a blogger who targets teens with mostly inoffensive, albeit slightly obnoxious, reality TV-style content – the 13-year-old’s not breaking any house rules by playing the video.
The 13-year-old knows Paul’s currently in Japan – he wished his followers a ‘Happy New Year’ from Tokyo via Twitter – and the latest video is sure to show something exciting, worlds away from a teenager’s dimly lit bedroom. Perhaps something to talk about at school.
What happened, though, was nothing like that. Instead, the video caused this kid – alongside millions of others – extreme distress in its depiction of suicide in a Japanese forest infamous as a frequent suicide spot.
“To give you a little history with my son, he has had the hardest time dealing with his father’s death, as he felt that it was his fault,” the London mother of this particular 13-year-old, who used the alias Joan Conrick, wrote in an open letter to Paul, The Mirror reports.
She explained her husband, her children’s father, suicided in 2008 after the financial crisis.
Top Comments
My 12 yr old saw this too; prompting in depth parenting convo. She was shocked to see them laughing about it. But still torn as to her thoughts because she fan girls over this ex Disney star. We often talk about the “production” of many of his “ set up for film” antics. But this was really thoughtless for his younger demographic of viewers, the deceased’s family, and anyone having dealt with or living with depression or suicidal ideology. I’m all for tackling the tricky life lessons in the correct contex, but this was irresponsible.
What on EARTH was he thinking? How could this *possibly* have anything to do with suicide awareness/prevention? This is just so beyond stupid, and his 'explanation' is just ridiculous. He is obviously a young man who has been very lucky to never have had to deal with losing someone close to him, otherwise he wouldn't be so cavalier about making fun of a tragedy like this.