BY KAITLYN LIM

Suicide is not something to take lightly, and Logan Paul posting about the Japanese suicide forest is no exception. On December 31, Paul uploaded a video regarding his trip to the well-known suicide forest. In said video, Paul showed raw footage of the forest in its entirety when they came upon a man that had committed a recent suicide. Not knowing how to react, Paul focused the camera on the scene and spoke about his inexperience when it came to things related to this. Although Paul said in his apology tweet that “ didn’t do it for views. views,” I still believe that it was not only an act of selfishness, but also irresponsibility. Paul’s motives may not have been clear at the time of the video being posted, but it is obvious that the video violates YouTube policies; therefore, it leaves it to common sense that he should not have posted the video on such a public and popular site.

“…I’m still a human being. I can be wrong,” Paul said. He indeed is a human being and it is okay to be wrong at times and make mistakes. What is not okay is taking it upon yourself to believe that posting a video with a Japanese suicide victim and violating the privacy of the deceased is okay in your eyes. Something to think about is that in Paul’s apology letter he does not speak about his wrongs in posting the video. He constantly talks about himself and how he believed he could have made a “positive ripple on the internet.” Not once does he relate it back to what he should have done in order to prevent it happening again.

Furthermore, Paul has been taking extreme backlash from his mistake though it may be much, seeing as he immediately took down the video the day after it had been posted. It is clear that Paul should have taken earlier precautions when it came down to knowing whether it infringed anyone’s guidelines or was disrespectful in any way.