Theme Park Worldwide

[Benjsh]

As the police have been involved, this is a matter for the police to investigate the allegations and bring charges where necessarily.

They could bring no charges and I still wouldn't believe this person was innocent. There's just way too much smoke and all the girls have very similar tales of how he's basically groomed them for something more than friendship. He's a threat to the public that one. Those girls are very brave and have a done a good thing for the community by speaking out.

 

[RoyJess]

Its quite a difficult process bringing charges in cases like this. They don't always get charged for a whole host of reasons. They are difficult cases to prosecute.


This does not make them any less dangerous.

The reason why it can difficult to bring charges, is because without evidence, it ends up being one word against the other. Reading through the victim stories, it appears that the harassment took place via messaging which is good news as these can be used as evidence. And before someone shoots me down and say that these messages got deleted, digital footprint will allow for these messages to be recovered.

 

[DistortAMG]

The reason why it can difficult to bring charges, is because without evidence, it ends up being one word against the other. Reading through the victim stories, it appears that the harassment took place via messaging which is good news as these can be used as evidence. And before someone shoots me down and say that these messages got deleted, digital footprint will allow for these messages to be recovered.

I agree. But even with them it can still be difficult to actually convict someone. Unless they are very serious it usually gets dropped with a warning. Still makes the perpetrators no less dangerous.

 

[GaryH]

I read the full accounts of the people's experiences on Twitter yesterday and was shocked by the last few. The same name keeps coming up with the stalking and threatening behaviour to the extent the last girls account of what happened was basically rape.

As for blocking these people from Facebook groups, it would not have been done initially as it takes time for evidence such as this to become known, and now it is known then surely it's best to act and stop them potentially contacting other young girls in these groups than to allow them to continue to have access to the group's now it is known the extent of their behaviour.....

As for Shawn, personally I would be surprised if he knew the true extent of what was going on. I mean, would the person who keeps getting named actually say to him that he raped a girl? I doubt it.

 

[hannypanda]

Hey everybody, new poster here.

I’ve been a keen browser of the Towers Street forum for a while, however after reading a lot of responses on here I feel the need to express my thoughts. You’ll have to forgive me as I’m still figuring this forum out, so my response may not be structured the way you’re used to seeing usual responses. Anyway, here goes…

As a young woman in the Theme Park community, let me tell you that this sort of thing is rife. Several individuals from Theme Park YouTube (including, but not exclusively TPW) have reached out to young girls for a long while. They have used their internet fame to constantly contact young women (mostly around the age range of 17-19, however some younger), and something needs to be done to put this to an end. I, myself, have had certain YouTube “influencers” add me on Facebook, attempt to ask me out, then delete and block me when I say no.

There was one particular poster who asked why these accusations hadn’t been brought to light earlier, let me explain why.

1. The individual in question may have felt scared to make a claim about a particular influencer and been too fearful of any backlash that may have come from it. If you have read the comments to any of TPWs Twitter posts you may understand why. While a number of people have been attacking Shawn with pitchforks, there are still individuals saying these young girls are “liars” and they are “looking for attention”.

2. Sometimes, it takes one or two others to speak out for you to gain the confidence to speak out yourself. If you feel like you are a victim then you can feel extremely alone and scared.

3. In certain instances you may brush something off as “that was inappropriate, however I didn’t think too much of it or want to say anything”. If, however, you see multiple other people speak up with similar stories, you only then realise how truly wrong it was.

I am not going to go into detail on the current accusations until the investigation is complete. Very much like @delta79 I do not want to derail any legal process, and any potential charges that could be brought against certain individuals. I will, however, comment on how the situation has been handled.

While Shawn is thankfully not accused of anything in regard to young women, there are now four individuals who’ve appeared regularly on TPW vlogs past and present that have been accused. This is an alarming statistic, and as such I believe Shawn’s actions have been questionable at best. The deleting/hiding of comments and blocking of individuals was in extreme poor taste. Regardless of whether the accusations are true or false, acting in this way only makes you look guilty. The statement itself came too late, felt cold and rehearsed and did not condemn any of the actions of the accused or address any of the victims. While I understand he is not commenting on any of the allegations, he should have at least apologised and stated TPW do not condone actions like this in any way, shape or form. Finally, his choice to attend parks and vlog this weekend was foolish and completely distasteful. His social media posts show that he is acting as normal, and I think we can all categorically agree that these are not normal times. While deep down he may care, doing this has given off the impression that he does not and is only focused on vlogging and in turn making money.

The allegations that have been made are serious, although a lot of them are not what you’d automatically class as “breaking the law”. One individual in particular has been the subject of around 15 claims, all extremely similar, but not many display what you’d call law breaking behaviour. Unsettling and creepy yes, but not necessarily against the law. If no charges are brought against this individual, that does not necessarily mean he is innocent.

Finally, in regard to the racism allegation against Shawn, I do find it odd that this hasn’t been addressed if fake, however appreciate that Shawn may be getting his own legal advice on this matter. If someone has faked this, then I hope Shawn presses charges against that person, as it is a nasty claim to make.

Apologies for the length of the post, however I felt the need to express my thoughts as a young female in the Theme Park community. While it may appear shocking and unfathomable to some, this sort of stuff does go on.

Hannypanda

 

[Craig]

Welcome to the forum @hannypanda, it's a shame that your first post isn't on better terms but you got your points across very well.

The one positive to come from all this is that people are now fully aware of the extent this sort of stuff has been going on, and I think the vast majority of the community has come forward to say they will not stand for it. I think it's safe to say we've heard rumours of this going on, and even seen examples of it in the past. But the frequency, the pattern of the behaviour and the severity of some of the allegations concerning some has shocked me.

 

[Plastic Person]

This sort of thing has been rife for years. I experienced some of it myself as a teenage enthusiast from older men, although nothing too troubling to me personally. What has changed since the early or mid-noughties is the cult of personality around Vloggers. I'm quite happily far removed from the world of Theme Park Twitter, aspiration and 'stan culture', but looking into how it operates this past week, I'm not at all surprised that this sort of abuse of power seemingly takes place more than ever.

 

[The Cardinal]

I think regardless of whether people want believe it's true or not, I'd agree with most people in this thread that have said there's been a clear trend with every allegation. It's standard predator tactics - get in a high position in a community, exploit some people in that community and then act friendly on camera so no one will suspect you. It's awful. The one positive is these girls are opening up and warning people of these actions so they can't happen in the future.

Shawn's handling of this has been awful on social media though. The fact that he still follows the individuals in question on every outlet and hasn't addressed it in a video is concerning. Sure, it's good he posted about it, but I think a video would be the best way to reach their audience. Some of the individuals being targeted may not follow them on social media and might be clueless this is all happening. There really needs to be a sincere address to their audience and Shawn needs to show he's properly distancing himself from the individuals by unfollowing them on social media, maybe deleting posts off Instagram with them on (there's no revenue from that) and never mentioning them again on the channel.

 

[hannypanda]

Welcome to the forum @hannypanda, it's a shame that your first post isn't on better terms but you got your points across very well.

The one positive to come from all this is that people are now fully aware of the extent this sort of stuff has been going on, and I think it's safe to say the vast majority of the community has come forward to say they will not stand for it. I think it's safe to say we've heard rumours of this going on, and even seen examples of it in the past. But the frequency, the pattern of the behaviour and the severity of some of the allegations concerning some has shocked me.

Thank you @Craig, hopefully my posts will be a lot more positive from now on.

Even as someone who's been aware that this is going on, I am amazed at the number of cases that have been raised.

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

 

[Skyscraper]

Welcome to TS @hannypanda.

A lot of parks offer vloggers free tickets as an incentive for advertising their park via their vlogs. I wouldn't be surprised if parks saw all this and changed the way they receive/deal with them. If a vlogger is "professional" and monetised they should have to get filming permission in advance, before they even get to the park, just like TV companies. Plus, anyone who was caught on camera would have to be asked permission, just like TV crews have to.

 

[Alsty]

If there's one good thing to come out of this, it's hopefully that those people who are using these platforms to harass and talk inappropriately to others will now stop after seeing their cover blown wide open. They thought they could do it and get away with it. Now that perpetrators have seen the anger and disapproval from everybody within the community, perhaps they will feel scared that they'll get caught out and the wrath will turn on them next. It's a shame that decent behaviour has to be forced on some people but if this whole saga helps them to rein in their behaviour that can only be a good thing.

 

[pluk]

The reason why it can difficult to bring charges, is because without evidence, it ends up being one word against the other. Reading through the victim stories, it appears that the harassment took place via messaging which is good news as these can be used as evidence. And before someone shoots me down and say that these messages got deleted, digital footprint will allow for these messages to be recovered.

While on some technical level this may be true, on a practical one it unfortunately is not. Many messaging system offer end to end encryption, the host does not store a copy for recovery. Even where they do it can be practically impossible for prosecuting agencies to gain access, with foreign court orders required in an expensive and lengthy process, a process which would not be viable or proportionate for relatively low level investigations like this. It'd be used for anti terrorism or serious organised crime primarily.

The message here is don't delete your evidence!!

I agree. But even with them it can still be difficult to actually convict someone. Unless they are very serious it usually gets dropped with a warning. Still makes the perpetrators no less dangerous.

Nope. With sufficient evidence and a willing victim it would not be dropped. It would be prosecuted. Protecting the wider public will always be in the public interest for sexual offences.

 

[RoyJess]

While on some technical level this may be true, on a practical one it unfortunately is not. Many messaging system offer end to end encryption, the host does not store a copy for recovery. Even where they do it can be practically impossible for prosecuting agencies to gain access, with foreign court orders required in an expensive and lengthy process, a process which would not be viable or proportionate for relatively low level investigations like this. It'd be used for anti terrorism or serious organised crime primarily.

Jess and I successfully took someone to court and won our case last year. In compiling our evidence, we were able to down load all our messaging data as well as anything that has also been posted on social media right back to the start, including deleted stuff. We are talking about many years worth here.

 

[pluk]

Jess and I successfully took someone to court and won our case last year. In compiling our evidence, we were able to down load all our messaging data as well as anything that has also been posted on social media right back to the start, including deleted stuff. We are talking about many years worth here.

If that's still in your account and retrievable by you, or on a UK based server, then yes. But deleted stuff on foreign held servers? No chance.

 

[DistortAMG]

Ok so given as has been stated. Many of the claims made against a certain person who has the most, is very disturbing behaviour but not massively law breaking. I would still consider him a big risk and a danger to young women however.

Given that, if no charges were brought against said individual, I would hope that TPWW would have the common sense to keep said person off the channel for good. Given what has come out.

I say this because in the 'statement' TPWW made it sound like certain people would not be appearing while and only while criminal investigations are underway.

I would hope said person is never on anything again. It would be suicide for the channel and would give him the platform to carry on abusing.

As for claims a certain someone was in hospital for attempted suicide. Again the key word is attempted. Call me cynical but this is classic abuser manipulative behaviour. When the world is against you, you desperatlyuse this sort of behaviour as a desperate attempt to garner some sort of sympathy. I do not buy it personally. It could very well be genuine, but, it fits the profile of an abuser. Textbook stuff.

On a side note. When you dig deeper there is some disturbing sexual content photos that were sent by one individial. To a 15 year old girl. Along side the other person who sent some to a 13 year old girl. As this rabbit hole opens, it gets more and more disturbing.

Viewing some content others have put onto YouTube sort of cut 'best bits' style videos of TPWW. The one is about 4 years old, 11 minute video and it basically just shows sexual innuendo and innuendo for 11 mins, from all involved in TPWW. Yet this is a family channel? May have been tounge in cheek before, but after these revelations it is quite disturbing what is classed as normal by most of the people on the channel.

 

[hannypanda]

Ok so given as has been stated. Many of the claims made against a certain person who has the most, is very disturbing behaviour but not massively law breaking. I would still consider him a big risk and a danger to young women however.

Given that, if no charges were brought against said individual, I would hope that TPWW would have the common sense to keep said person off the channel for good. Given what has come out.

I say this because in the 'statement' he made it sound like certain people would not be appearing while and only while criminal investigations are underway.

I would hope said person is never on anything again. It would be suicide for the channel and would give him the platform to carry on abusing.

As for claims a certain someone was in hospital for attempted suicide. Again the key word is attempted. Call me cynical but this is classic abuser manipulative behaviour. When the world is against you, you pretened this sort of behaviour as a desperate attempt to garner some sort of sympathy. I do not buy it personally.

I completely agree. You have to remember that a lot of those making the allegations were/are TPW fans and would really seek to gain nothing by making said claims. Imagine how it would feel if the person was cleared and then all of a sudden began appearing in YouTube videos again.

As for the suicide claim, this came from an account in the TPW Facebook group, and I think it was more sh*t stirring than anything else. I would also like to believe that IF it was true that Shawn wouldn't have been from park to park doing vlogs this weekend out of respect for his really good friend...but then again I was surprised he was vlogging anyway!

 

[Alsty]

Given that, if no charges were brought against said individual, I would hope that TPWW would have the common sense to keep said person off the channel for good. Given what has come out.

I say this because in the 'statement' TPWW made it sound like certain people would not be appearing while and only while criminal investigations are underway.

Their original statement on the 3rd July says "as the Police investigation continues, during this time, these people will not appear in new content" which seems to suggest they could reappear once investigations are concluded, but this reply on the 4th July suggests it will only be Shawn and Charlotte from this point onwards:

 

[Skyscraper]

I completely agree. You have to remember that a lot of those making the allegations were/are TPW fans and would really seek to gain nothing by making said claims. Imagine how it would feel if the person was cleared and then all of a sudden began appearing in YouTube videos again.

As for the suicide claim, this came from an account in the TPW Facebook group, and I think it was more sh*t stirring than anything else. I would also like to believe that IF it was true that Shawn wouldn't have been from park to park doing vlogs this weekend out of respect for his really good friend...but then again I was surprised he was vlogging anyway!

Yeah I was surprised he vlogged this weekend. Would've been more sensible but but then people would've whined at them and assumed them guilty as they were hiding. They can't win unfortunately.

 

[ringo]

The Irony...

 

[Spookle15]

11 minutes of complied sexual innuendo from how many vlogs over how many years......it's not generally stuff I find funny, when it does appear sometimes Shawn will say "oh, family channel". Because there are words out there that can be said in all innocence and then other people make it something more. Half the time on TV I don't get why an audience is laughing at a very normal everyday word which obviously has another meaning. I've seen other channels in hysterics talking about woodies and wooden rollercoasters in general.

Then there are the obvious jokes that are intentionally said...... again, I believe that is for the adults watching. I don't think most young people would or should, understand and when it's there I've found it quite mild and you either miss it or you don't.

Should it be on a family channel? There is no swearing, there is no obvious adult content so I guess it's for each person to decide, personally I don't think there has ever been anything really inappropriate or in bad taste, but I have only been watching videos since late last year so I haven't seen them all, but a fair few. I remember he was careful about showing a restaurant in the USA roadtrip because it was basically somewhere you go to be insulted and there were, from memory inappropriate images in there.

My brother and I have been discussing this a lot recently. It's like he said, every single thing will now be scrutinised and looked into and debated as to whether X amount of years ago there were ulterior motives to this, that and the other. Things we took in humour, we now view as being something untoward. It's like what happens to comedians, they post something 11 years ago, no one had a issue back then, but something happens, times change, it's still the same joke but it's no longer OK.

I can only judge TPWW based on what I felt at the time of watching the videos. Have I ever seen anything that I've thought was off whilst watching. No, I haven't. So I can't honestly go back and re-watch things with a different view point.

If people are guilty, then Shawn will either have to do some serious editing or remove vlogs. I don't think it would be appropriate, and personally I'm not sure I would want to watch vlogs with those people in them, not because I think I'm watching inappropriate sexual innuendo, but because that person should not be given airtime on a popular youtube channel.