Popular YouTuber Accused of Requesting Indecent Photos from Underage Fans

Last Updated on 2019-05-13 , 10:55 am

We seem to be writing about a lot of crimes of this nature lately.

This time we’re throwing this dude under the bus.

This is Jared Knabenbauer, who goes by the name of ProJared on YouTube. YouTubers who  review or play games are plentiful and all the rage these days, include over in the US. ProJared is one of them: he plays and reviews games on YouTube, and cracks jokes in his videos.

He has some fame on the platform, with 1 million subscribers to his name…which he apparently also asks explicit photographs from.

What Happened

A series of tweets from his wife, Heidi O’ Ferrall, actually explains a lot of the situation (and also surprise, Twitter is all the rage in the US).

Basically, Knabenbauer and his wife started asking for nudes in the beginning as a joke. It ended up becoming an entire Tumblr account dedicated to the fans’ explicit images, supposedly a “body-positive space for consenting adults”.

Thereafter, Knabenbauer started pushing the boundaries alone, starting a Snapchat account to receive nudes from his fans. His wife found out through a fan’s comment, and felt “pressured to allow it even though I was uncomfortable”.

She ends of saying: “I used to think that among consenting adults, it was fine. Now I see it as an abuse of power for him to intentionally manipulate anyone to show him their naked body on the basis that he’s a popular internet man. I would like to apologize for my role in enabling this.”

Fans’ Accounts

While the explanation above doesn’t exactly paint “ProJared” in a very good light, it’s not technically illegal.

Then two people who used to be fans of Knabenbauer going by the names Chai and Charlie revealed that they were manipulated into sending nude photographs of themselves while they were minors.

cw / sexual abuse, underage sexual abuse

ProJared sexually manipulated me via Tumblr when I was 16. I believe Heidi, and I believe every other victim.
Feel free to RT, to spread awareness of his actions. I won't be answering any questions. Not today. pic.twitter.com/gEbHeWAt9T

— Chai (@chaitemporary) May 9, 2019

Chai details his exchange with Knabenbauer including how he eventually started sending “actual, real nudes”, which he explicitly said not to share since he was underaged.

Knabenbauer shared them anyway.

Methods of Manipulation

Chai confessed that he felt “special and wanted”, since he was a fan and also due to how Knabenbauer continued to have sexual conversations with him even though he was underaged.

Then Chai shared Knabenbauer’s pictures with his friend, and the YouTuber’s tone changed, calling him “disgusting and awful” (even though he also shared Chai’s pictures without his consent), which made Chai delete his Tumblr blog, which would have been his evidence.

Luckily, the other victim Charlie who is a friend of Chai kept the evidence of their exchange.

hey, im going to come out with my experience with jared. i will be posting evidence in this thread. pic.twitter.com/Pw0AwcjSlG

— charlie ლ(╹◡╹ლ) (@swampborzoi) May 9, 2019

He also tells his story of how he ended up sending Knabenbauer his explicit pictures, which the YouTuber called “beautiful”. He said: “Thrilled by the acknowledgement and validation from someone whom I admired so much, I didn’t stop. I ate up the attention he gave me.”

Eventually, Charlie was invited to a “secret” blog with explicit images of Knabenbauer and those from his fans. Charlie was encouraged to share his own photos as well, but he declined. While the YouTuber seemed to respect the decision, he stopped talking to the boy and unfollowed him after that.

“Not The Adult in the Situation”

In the end, both victims said they’re not proud of their actions, but as the adult, Knabenbauer had the responsibility to put a stop to the exchange.

Of course, that’s the exact opposite of what he wanted. Instead, he fully abused his position as an idol to many young and impressionable fans. He used their vulnerability, methodically fed them with the affirmation they craved, then threw them away after he couldn’t gain anything more.

You can view the threads by Chai and Charlie here and here.

Exposing ProJared

With Charlie’s evidence, Chai tipped off NormalBoots, the creator collective Knabenbauer belongs to, and there has been a mutual parting of ways.

Other YouTubers are also showing their disapproval. Game Grumps, a very popular YouTube channel, started deleting old videos that Knabenbauer appeared in, while popular streamers live-streamed Knabenbauer’s fall in subscribers.

Well, would he disappear from YouTube (and the online world) like a certain local YouTuber? Only time will tell.