YouTube demonetises beauty influencer James Charles after admitting to sending inappropriate messages to teens

By Sarah Parsons | Published: 20-Apr-2021

The former 'CoverBoy' and social media personality's make-up collaboration with Morphe has also come to an end

Beauty influencer James Charles' YouTube channel has been demonetised after admitting to sending sexually explicit messages to 16-year-old boys.

Charles, who has 25 million subscribers on the video platform, will no longer receive advertising revenue via YouTube's Partnership Program.

YouTube has applied its 'creator responsibility' to Charles' channel, which reads: "Remember that as YouTube creators, you should remain responsible both on and off the platform. If we see that a creator's on- and/or off-platform behaviour harms our users, community, employees or ecosystem, we may take action to protect the community."

Behaviour that incur penalties on YouTube include 'malicious harm to others' and 'participating in abuse or violence, demonstrating cruelty or participating in fraudulent/deceptive behaviour that leads to real-world harm.'

This is the second business to publicly cut ties with the 21-year-old. On Friday 17 April, colour cosmetics brand Morphe and Charles announced the end of their three year partnership.

According to a statement by Morphe, both parties have agreed to wind "wind down sales" of the Morphe x James Charles make-up palettes and brushes.

Earlier this month, Charles released a video titled 'holding myself accountable' where he admitted and apologised for two incidents where he was accused of sending "inappropriate messages" – one last year and one more recently – to two people on Snapchat.

He claims he was unaware they were underage and that the pair had lied about their age. The video has been viewed more than eight million times.


"Since posting that video, many other people have come forward with a series of misleading stories and false allegations which have been reported on by many people creators and news outlets," said Charles via Twitter.

"My legal team has begun taking action against those that have spread misinformation and/or created completely fake stories, as this has gone too far."

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