The name “Logan Paul” is all over social media after the YouTube star posted a controversial video of him in the Aokigahara Forest, known as the “Suicide Forest”. The vlogger went into the forest, filmed the body of a poor soul that had taken their own life, and posted it for his young following to see.

Paul and his friends began to make insensitive comments like, “Yo, are you alive?” and, “Are you [expletive] with us?”while continuing to film the body. Paul made a profit off his monetized video entitled, “We found a body in the Japanese Suicide Forest”.

The Aokigahara Forest is an important place to the people of Japan. According to the forest’s official website, there is barely any wildlife making the entire forest very quiet. Due to how silent it is throughout the forest, many blame it on the legends saying it is haunted. When people enter the forest, signs in both Japanese and English are stationed everywhere. They encourage people to exit the forest, and say things like “Your life is a gift”. While there are many unsettling myths surrounding the forest, civilians say that there is a special feeling to the place. The people of Japan have come together to try to help others. And the fact that Paul entered a place so closed to the hearts of many people and mocked it is beyond disrespectful.

Parents have turned to social media and expressed how upset they were that Paul posted this video for innocent eyes to see. In an article published by Metro UK, mother Joan Conrick explains that her husband killed himself in 2008. After this tragedy occurred, her son blamed himself and felt incredible guilt. In a letter she wrote to the news outlet, Conrick dived into Paul’s video.

“At first, I couldn’t believe it. I assumed that it was maybe an extremely vulgar prank. He kept saying how he could see how the hands were all purple. So now I am worried for him [her son] on several levels,” said Conrick. Bringing awareness to the topic of suicide is important in this day in age, but posting a video of a body at the expense of getting more views and gaining followers is disgusting.

She went on to explain that she has concern for her children and others who have lost their loved ones to suicide. Conrick says that other children may get the idea that it is okay to make fun of suicide and as a mother, she is very upset that so many impressionable children saw someone they look up to poke fun at such a serious topic.

This kind of content is so unacceptable for children to see. Laughing and making horrible comments about someone who has committed suicide for your millions of followers to see is only going to give young minds the idea that this behavior is okay.

Is Youtube going to take away Logan Paul’s ability to monetize his videos? Are they going to suspend him for his inappropriate acts, or completely ban him? The main question at hand is what is YouTube going to do now?

Discussion of Logan Paul’s video has been filling the hallways and classrooms of Adams, and Highlanders themselves decided to give their take on this hot topic.

“I thought Logan Paul’s video is completely inappropriate to anyone with a proper mindset. It is completely disrespectful to show children things like that. I think Logan Paul should be banned since this is not his first time making ridiculous and disgusting content,” said junior Jade Lazenby.

Other students have described how Paul’s video made them feel and how it was awful to post something like that online. The main focus of many though, was the fact that his following is children, and that this could be damaging to them.

“I really don’t think that this video was appropriate for his young subscribers, especially since parents are coming out and saying that their children are shocked and scared from seeing this video,” said freshman Bella Lucido.

This video has since been taken down and Paul has posted an apology video. The video received negative comments after Paul did not own up to his actions or apologize. YouTube has yet to release a statement about the  controversy surrounding Paul’s video. Hopefully, Mr. Paul will face some sort of punishment for his terrible and insensitive comments that he made in a forest that was once so sacred to the people of Japan.