YouTube’s Sam Pepper released controversial sexual harassment prank videos on Sept. 20.
Pepper made a prank video in downtown Santa Monica where he pretended to have a third arm, so he could grope women from behind.
“This is a good lesson to learn from. This isn’t appropriate behavior, it’s against the law, and he should be punished,” said Delta student Andrew Morgan.
The video was taken down due to the violation of YouTube’s policy, and also the fact touch- ing other people where one isn’t welcome, is indeed considered sexual assault and illegal.
Soon after, Pepper released part two of the video prank.
In the second video the gender roles were reversed, with men as the victims.
The video was taken down due to the same policy violations as the first video.
According to Pepper this was to show the gender discrimination in sexual assault cases.
Pepper later uploaded part three of the prank, titled “the reveal” where he comes out to say it was a social experiment in an attempt to bring light to sexual assault against men.
It’s a subject Pepper feels isn’t treated as seriously as sexual assault against women.
In the video Pepper apologized for the confusion and stated that some of the ̈victims ̈ were actors.
Should we believe him? Should he be prosecuted? These are all the questions that have arisen after the three videos aired on YouTube.
Although all of Pepper’s vid- eos relating to the prank were taken down, he faces no prosecution at the moment, and has received a temporary channel suspension from YouTube.
Ironically that same week the “It’s On Us” campaign, featuring many notable people, including President Barack Obama, aired imploring all of us to stand up, step in and stop sexual assault.