In one of the most bizarre stories I have heard in a long time, a YouTube prankster has been arrested on child sex abuse charges for manipulating and uploading a video of him singing a song to a class of first-graders. Absolute madness.
YouTube Prank Gone Wrong
Evan Emory is a singer-songwriter and part-time comedian who had an idea for a YouTube video he thought would be funny and could become a hit. Instead, it has led to him being arrested on child sex abuse charges and facing up to 20 years in prison.
Emory gained permission to perform the child-friendly Lunch Lady Song to a class of first-graders in Muskegon, Michigan. Which he duly did. The kids were filmed reacting with delight to the song. When the classroom emptied, Emory performed a different song with explicit lyrics. The two were then spliced together at a later date so that it looked as though the kids had been present for the second song.
The video was uploaded to YouTube (since deleted) where it became an underground hit. Two days later and Emory found himself arrested and treated like a pedophile.
Is This Really A Crime?
Let’s be clear here: Emory did not sing any sexually-themed lyrics to the children. Instead, they watched him perform an entirely innocent song and he then performed the other song to an empty classroom. So what is the crime he had committed? And who is the victim? If the kids aren’t told about what happened then none of them will be any the wiser.
Yes, it was a stupid thing to do, a fact which Emory admits in hindsight. But should this 21-year-old prankster be jailed and condemned as some sort of risk to children for being adept at video editing? Of course not. And the reactions from some people on the issue are preposterous.
Conclusions
If Emory had performed a song about sex to a class of first-graders then he’d deserve some jail time, but even then 20 years would seem extreme. But he didn’t do anything of the sort, making this whole thing a ludicrous example of the law being an ass.
