Shane Dawson is defending himself after an old, edited clip from his podcast surfaced online.
On Wednesday, a YouTube channel named "Pop Blast" posted a video to their 677,000 subscribers titled "I think Shane Dawson is a pedophile. Here's my proof."
In the video that has since been removed, Shane is heard making jokes about a "sexy" child.
When fans and followers began to voice their outrage at Shane's quotes, the YouTuber decided to respond with his own video. He began the 14-minute post by playing the controversial clip in question.
"I went to Google and I didn't want to see child porn. I just wanted to see, let me pretend I'm a pedophile for a second," he explained in a podcast appearance. "So I typed in naked baby. First of all, I don't understand why anybody would be turned on by that. But, they were sexy. I'm kidding."
As to why he decided to play that old clip, Shane explained his reasoning behind it.
"I wanted to play that clip in full—that moment especially in full—just for context because that seems to be missing nowadays. I can't believe I'm having this make this video," he shared. "I'm going to start by saying I'm not a f--king pedophile. I go on record saying I am not a f--king pedophile. Got it? Great. There's my statement. It's disgusting that people are saying I'm a f--king pedophile because of some s---ty ass f--king jokes from six years ago on a podcast."
Shane also went on to apologize for the language he used.
"I'm going to apologize first. I'm sorry that I used to make really s---ty f--king jokes. I'm sorry that I was so f--king insecure and playing this character of this guy who's crazy and will say anything and tries to make people laugh by shocking them. That was my thing. That is what I did on YouTube," he shared. "Back in the day, 2008-2012ish, that was my thing. 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. I was making the easy jokes…I was doing some f--ked up comedy stuff that I'm not proud of."
The YouTube star—who has 11 million subscribers—also explained to his fans that he has changed "so much" as a person, creator, director and writer. He also reminded his followers that he has been molested resulting in him becoming "passionate about shedding light" on abuse.
"So I think that's why it hurts the most is having my name put next to the word pedophile is actually the most triggering and the most heartbreaking thing I've literally ever seen. I've been called everything. I've been on YouTube for a long time," he shared. "I'm so sorry if that triggered you or offended you or hurt your feelings. It triggers me listening to that."
Shane continued, "I'm sorry for making offensive jokes. I'm sorry that these are making people uncomfortable but it's also very out of context. When you listen to the full thing, it's still s---ty and creepy and bad jokes but it's not me being a pedophile. This is not proof of me being a pedophile."
Watch his full YouTube response video above.