The clip, which originally came out four years ago, comes from Shane's own podcast, Shane And Friends. Photo / Getty Images
An audio clip has surfaced featuring YouTube megastar Shane Dawson attempting to "justify" paedophilia, calling a six-year-old girl "sexy" and recounting how he once looked up "naked baby" on Google.
Shane, 29, made the shocking comments in an episode of his podcast Shane And Friends, which originally aired four years ago and has received renewed attention after a YouTube video highlighted them yesterday, the Daily Mail reports.
The exchange features Shane, who now has 11 million subscribers on YouTube and was one of the first creators to rise to fame on the platform, insisting to explain his "justification" of paedophilia while his co-host begs him to stop talking.
About seven minutes into the podcast episode, Shane begins to recount his meeting with a six-year-old Instagram influencer.
"The six-year-old goes, "Oh, how many followers do you have?" First of all, it was almost like one of those contests that is like, how big is your d**k," he said.
"And this kid slapped her huge d**k on the table and was, like, a six-year-old who goes "Oh, I have 125,000." Her d**k was almost as big as mine."
Shane continues replaying the conversation, adding:"And I said, "OK little big d**k, why do you have so many followers? And she goes "Oh I'm a cheerleader", and I'm like, "Oh really", and she shows me her Instagram, which I'm like—first of all, I don't know if I'm not allowed to say this, but she's, like, sexy."
At this point, his then co-anchor, Lauren Schnipper, chimes in and tells Shane: "You're disgusting."
Shane, however, goes on to say: "No, listen. We've talked about paedophilia before."
Lauren attempts to give him a firmer warning, telling him: "No no no, Shane, do not say this. I don't even want to talk about it. You will get arrested."
Then Lauren explains to the listeners: "He has this justification for paedophilia and it's so disturbing, and I just pretend that he doesn't."
Despite his co-host's pleading comments, Shane continues: "Let me explain, let me explain! Here's my justification for paedophilia."
He then launches into his explanation, prefacing it with: "First of all, let me just say. Having sex with children or touching children or anything of that nature is terrible and you should not do it."
Shane then continues: "But, here's my thing. People have foot fetishes, people have fetishes about everything, and there's websites on the internet where they can look at that weird creepy s**t and jerk off to it. OK, fine, everybody do your thing.
"So why is it that when someone Googles, like, "naked baby" and jerks off to it, they can get arrested? I don't understand that."
His dumbfounded co-anchor thus tries to explain to Shane why looking at pornographic images of children is illegal, but struggles to find her words.
"Because there's a naked b— Because they had to— Because somebody took a picture of a naked baby," she finally says.
"And by the way they're not googling "naked baby." They're googling, like, I'm not going to say what they're googling, I mean I watch a lot of Law and Order so like—"
Incredibly, Shane cuts her off at that point to share more damning revelations.
"But here's the worst part of it, I actually went to Google and I'm like, "I want to see..."" he begins.
Lauren exclaims: "You can get arrested!"
Shane continues: "I know! I didn't want to see child porn. I just wanted to see, like, OK, let me pretend like I'm a paedophile for a second."
That is when Lauren chimes in to state: "OK, by the way, just for the record, police, I have nothing to do with this. I didn't know this. You can literally get arrested for saying this."
"Let me finish," Shane insists. "So I typed in "naked baby". First of all, I don't understand why anybody would be turned on by that."
"That's the first good thing you said," Lauren tells him.
Shane then adds: "But... They were sexy."
He then laughs and states, "I'm kidding."
Later in the video, Shane can be heard referring to the six-year-old Instagrammer again, this time calling her a "skinny, little, sexy six-year-old."
The resurfaced audio promptly became a hot topic on social media, and prompted Twitter to craft a page dedicated to the controversy in its "Moments" section.
Shane's fans have since jumped to his defense, pointing out that the audio was recorded years ago and that crass humor has always been a part of Shane's "brand".
Some even suggested that the video highlighting Shane's comments was created to distract from fellow YouTuber Logan Paul's downfall after he posted a video showing the dead body of a man who had committed suicide.
Shane has apologized in a video and insisted on Twitter that he has since changed his content for the better.
the jokes are old and were out of context. i’ve been molested in my childhood. i dealt with it by making jokes. and i’ve grown up and stopped doing that. people just don’t want to let me move on. this whole experience was insane and awful and i don’t wish it on anyone.
— Shane Dawson (@shanedawson) January 11, 2018
"The jokes are old and were out of context," he told the journalist Kara Swisher, who called him "an incredibly obtuse jackass". "I've been molested in my childhood. I dealt with it by making jokes. And I've grown up and stopped doing that. People just don't want to let me move on. This whole experience was insane and awful and I don't wish it on anyone."
Shane shot to fame on YouTube after creating his channel in 2008. He has since been accused of racism.
The creator apologised for his shocking comments in a 14-minute video he uploaded yesterday, titled: "Regarding the rumors about me today".
He started by playing part of the audio clip before stating: "Hi. I wanted to play that clip in full, I mean, that moment especially in full just for context, because that seems to be missing nowadays."
"I cannot believe that I'm having to make this video. I cannot believe that this is happening. I'm going to start by saying I am not a f*****g paedophile," he added, raising his voice and bringing his face close to the camera.
"I, Shane Yaw, my real name, go on record saying I am not a f*****g paedophile.
"It's disgusting that people are saying I'm a f*****g paedophile because of some s****y-a** f*****g jokes from six years ago on a podcast."
I grew up. I changed my content. I apologized countless times for my shitty offensive jokes. instead of dragging me down people should use me as an example of a creator who can CHANGE and better themselves and their content. i’m so proud of who i am today.
— Shane Dawson (@shanedawson) January 10, 2018
He then let out a long breath before starting again in a calmer tone: "Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to apologize first. I am sorry that I used to make really s****y f****g jokes. I am sorry that I was so f*****g insecure and, like, playing this character, this guy who's crazy and tries to make people laugh by shocking them.
"That was my thing. That was what I did on YouTube. A lot of people now don't know that."
Shane then provided more context about the kind of content he used to put out "back in the day, 2008 to 2012-ish, maybe 2013", with which his more recent followers might not be familiar.
"I loved the feeling of making somebody shocked and laugh because they couldn't believe what was coming out of my mouth. I wasn't confident enough to make smarter jokes," he said.
"I was making the easy jokes. I was playing crazy stereotypical characters. I was doing s**t that was racially insensitive. I was doing s**t that was homophobic. I was doing s**t that could be considered fat-shaming. I was doing some f****d-up comedy stuff that I'm not proud of."
Shane then said he has changed as a person, as a creator, as a writer, and as a director.
"The stuff I was saying back in those times, I would never say now," he added. "Ever. Because I don't think that's funny."
He also reminisced about his encounter with the six-year-old Instagrammer, deeming her account on the social media platform "creepy" and "weird".
Shane also said he is "passionate" about shedding light on Hollywood sexual abuse, and stated that he was molested in the past.
"I'm so sorry if that triggered you or offended you or hurt your feelings," he added. "It triggers me listening to that clip. I haven't listened to that clip ever, because I recorded it and then I didn't listen back.
"So listening to me joking about it f**ks me up. And it makes me go, 'Oh my God, what the f**k was I doing? Literally what the f**k was I doing?' But I look back at a lot of my own videos and say 'What the f**k was I doing?'—most of them."
The Kiwi actor has been part of the Star Wars universe for more than 20 years.