YouTuber James Charles ‘ashamed’ as he addresses ‘grooming’ accusations and admits to messaging 16-year-olds

James Charles has addressed accusations of grooming, and admitted to messaging 16-year-olds, claiming that they told him they were 18.

The 21-year-old, who recently addressed similar accusations, has faced backlash in recent weeks after various teenagers came forward, accusing him of inappropriately messaging them.

Charles has uploaded a video titled ‘holding myself accountable,’ and began by saying: ‘First and foremost, I need to say sorry.

‘I owe a massive apology to anybody that I’ve hurt or anybody that I’ve made uncomfortable with my actions. And I also want to say I’m sorry to my friends, family and fans that have to watch another one of these videos because you shouldn’t have to and this is really, really embarrassing.’

He added: ‘I want to make it really, really clear that I fully understand my actions and how they are wrong. There’s no excuse for them and I don’t plan on making any in this video either.’

Charles said that, within the past few weeks, two people have come forward saying that they had inappropriate messages from him on social media – one last year, and one more recently.

He said that that he messaged them both on Snapchat, and immediately asked their ages, with them allegedly telling him that they were both 18.

Charles said that he later on found out that they were 16.

‘Upon finding out, I was immediately embarrassed and blocked both people,’ he continued. ‘Later on, when I saw them making videos about it and those videos going viral, my immediate reaction, completely honestly, was to be really, really upset.’

‘As I did more research on these topics and self-reflected, I realised that the receipts and the screenshots and the specific details of the interaction really don’t matter, because I f**ked up,’ he continued.

‘And I need to take accountability for my actions and most importantly apologise to people that were affected by them.

‘These conversations should have never happened, point blank, period. There’s no excuse for it, there’s no ifs, ands, or buts, and I take full responsibility for that. I trusted the information that was given to me, rather than the information that I could have, and should have, got myself.’

‘As an adult, it is my job and my responsibility to verify who I’m talking to and therefore there is no one to blame for this other than myself.’

Charles went on to apologise to the people he spoke to, and described his own actions as ‘reckless’.

The YouTuber admitted he has been ‘desperate’ to find a romantic relationship.

‘It’s really looking like I’m actively searching for younger people to be in a relationship with and I just want to say first-hand that that is absolutely not the case,’ he said.

‘My hope has always been to be in a relationship with somebody around my age or older, that I can relate to and that can make me laugh and unfortunately I have not been able to find that person yet.

‘But the idea of actually being in a relationship became so important to me that I was willing to trust too quickly, miss out on red flags and most importantly not take the precautionary measures that really anybody, but especially somebody with a public platform, should be taking before talking to anybody and there’s no excuse for that.’

Charles added that he would never want to take advantage of the power imbalance between him, as a public figure, and his fans.

He finished the video by promising to be ‘way more careful’ with anyone he speaks to, and said that he will continue to ask for proper identification from anyone he’s interested in.

He added that he will be taking some time away to ‘reflect’ and ‘further educate’ himself so as he can become a better person.

Charles has a following of more than 25 million, and is best known for his beauty and makeup videos.

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