Dan Avidan Grooming Allegation
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Overview
Dan Avidan Grooming Allegation refers to an accusation made on Reddit in March of 2021 that Dan Avidan, co-host of the Let's Play channel Game Grumps, had groomed and engaged in sexual activity with a fan. Though the allegation was taken seriously and led to a wave of backlash on social media against Avidan, further investigation into the allegation led people to doubt if Avidan was guilty of any wrongdoing. Ultimately, the allegations were retracted.
Background
On March 21st, 2021, Redditor /u/NotBlarg posted a thread in /r/rantgrumps,[1] a subreddit devoted to complaining about Game Grumps, alleging that they had received video and photographic evidence from an anonymous woman that Dan Avidan had engaged in sexual activity and potentially groomed her. The post claims, "For over a year now there have been accusations about Dan Avidan sexting, sleeping, and ghosting younger fans, among other things." and:
(This girl's) experience with Dan matches the pattern of the girls that have come forward. While she was underage, she privately contacted him as a fan and more than happily engaged in conversation. As the years went by, and she became of legal age, their conversations turned into sexts, and eventually led to her meeting him backstage at a Game Grumps Live show where sexual activity occurred. A couple of weeks after, all contact from Dan ceased.
The post provided several pieces of evidence, including their first contact made in September of 2013, showing the girl reaching out to Dan (shown below). It then shows a tweet from the woman announcing she had just turned 18, made in October of 2013. The final bit of evidence is a video Dan allegedly sent to the woman showing off a tub and telling the woman she wishes she was there so they could have sex in it. This was sent in December of 2017, when the girl was 22.
Developments
Initially, the allegation of potential grooming led to a wave of backlash against Avidan. User @Corgbees[2] posted a Simpsons meme about Dan being a predator (shown below, left). Former Game Grumps member JonTron, who Dan replaced, made a joke[3] about an unfinished Sonic '06 playthrough he had been making on the channel before his departure (shown below, right).
However, as people reviewed the evidence, many began to doubt that Avidan was guilty of any wrongdoing, as it appears there was no sexual conversation between the pair when the girl was underage and that their sexual relationship occurred when she was 22. Twitter users @MikeyPanik[4] and @Weimerzeimer[5] posted screenshots of fans on social media reviewing the allegations and concluding that Avidan was not guilty of any wrongdoing (shown below).
On March 22nd, in a deleted Twitter thread, user @Ryuupastel[6] retracted their allegation of grooming, saying the Reddit thread did not have "the most trustworthy evidence" (shown below).
Avidan also denied the allegation in a statement to Game Revolution.[7]
Search Interest
External References
[1] Reddit – Video Evidence of the Dan Accusations
[4] Twitter – @MikeyPanik
[5] Twitter – @Weimerzeimer
[6] Twitter – @Weimerzeimer
[7] Game Revolution – Game Grumps’ Dan Avidan responds to sexual misconduct allegations ‘It’s simply untrue’
