So recently ThatJohnnyGuy, a musician/artist who's been on newgrounds respectively seen about 2010 just got exposed for grooming a 16 year old when he was in his 30's.

I wasn't very close to him, and only discovered his work around 2021 and decently enjoyed it enough before all this recent shit came out and about. Now why I am typing about this anyways, if it has nothing to do with me? Simply, to show how common this truly is.

Now don't take this as me defending Johnny's actions or downplaying the victim's own testimony, because I don't feel like doing any of that right now. Short of it is fuck Johnny. This wasn't an issue of him being young and over his head because he was allegedly 31 when the grooming was taking place.

That isn't just a person being in a dark place, that's somebody clearly trying to take advantage of a power dynamic and then saving-face when their victim actually decides to speak up for themselves, so they can save their own reputation. Plain and simple, no matter what pity parties Johnny tried to throw in his last few cryptic messages.

The trend of internet people specifically artists being revealed as groomers/paedophiles/shitheads has been a trend recently, especially on twitter. Most recent example that I could remember was Don of Supermega being accused of sexual assault and Matt and Ryan as rape apologists, although after their apologies, it's clear the situation holds a lot more nuance than how I just described it.

Like with Johnny, this is because internet personalities can hold power over their fans especially when those said fans fester a parasocial relationship. During this state, the victims usually don't talk about it or feel forced to not talk about it in fear that they'll lose that 'special' (abusive) connection with who they believe to be their significant other.

The problem with parasocial relationships in general is a whole other topic that can be discussed to death, and has been as such. Going back to the Supermega drama, lots of people were jumping at the bandwagon to say that Game Grumps and Oneyplays were infinitely better channels in that regard.

While I am an Oneyplays fan, (Don't like Game Grumps anymore ever since Jon left, with Arin getting on my nerves anytime I click on a new video.) this is incredibly inappropriate behavior. Immediately using a touchy situation like SA allegations only to use them to fuel your own personal biases over lets play channels is a shitty thing to do. This applies to Dream as well, but I don't watch his content so I can't personally speak on there as I have no real info over then from most likely biased Twitter posts.

Now what do those last few paragraphs have to do with lil' ol Johnny Boy? That whenever anybody tries to put on a fake nice person persona like Johnny, don't fall into it and just take a glance from a distance. Or more accurately, don't get too attached to any personalities regardless of success or fame because they could eventually get exposed for doing something like this, or committing another felony.

It's perfectly okay to be a fan of somebody, obviously. I'm a huge fan of JohnnyUtah, but I know he isn't some saint who can do no wrong because I personally like his content. There's a difference between liking what a person puts out and actually liking the person behind the screen where they won't ever know you exist, and that second way of thinking is a fine line that feels like crossing of personal boundaries for me.

So TL:DR, don't fuck kids. don't form obsessions with people online you don't know. and learn to do something better with your time than reading newgrounds posts, fag. XDDDDDDddd I am so funneh somebody shoot me in the fucking head right now god why