JinBop's prison release (and YouTube's inconsistent policy enforcement)

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Starlit "Jin" Zhao, commonly known online as JinBop or JinBopGaming (born November 18, 1992 [age 29]), is a former American gaming YouTuber well-known for playing video games with ThatGuyBarney, SkyDoesMinecraft, and House_Owner. Prior to leaving the Sky Media Offices to pursue a solo career, he used to film his videos in a Washington, D.C., office alongside the YouTube users mentioned above, as well as Sky Media editors TimDotTV and Mithzan. On June 26, 2015, he surpassed 100,000 YouTube subscribers, and to celebrate, he made a video saying "thank you." On August 18, 2015, he received a silver YouTube Creator Award plaque directly from YouTube, which is given to all YouTubers who achieve this milestone.

Zhao's most recent upload - at this point in time - is a gameplay video of the Giant Squid Studios game Abzû, which was released on August 10, 2016. Scarce, a news site on YouTube, posted a video alleging JinBop having ties to exploitative imagery of female children (at least three) on September 9, 2016. JinBop's real name was discovered by Scarce and his journalistic team, and was found to be consistent with publicly available court documentation detailing JinBop's offences and detention. Scarce also stated in the video that he and his group thought JinBop's lack of activity on social media was a result of his being detained, held in detention, and in court. Jin received a seven-year prison term from judge Anthony Patti, in the state of Michigan, and was scheduled for release on May 30, 2023. He was released on June 2, 2022, nevertheless, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons' website. This is assumed to be due to good behaviour.

However, the more concerning part of this situation is that activity has been spotted on the convicted paedophile's channel, and that - especially due to the young ages of his fanbase - many of his followers, including the girl who he was said to have 'groomed' by the United States District Court, have grown a sense of forgiveness for his actions, which could lead to Zhao being welcomed back to YouTube, potentially leaving more children at risk. YouTube usually does not intervene in punishing content creators unless a conviction has been served, which is why users such as Mini Ladd have been left to continue uploading, whilst musician Austin Jones, who was convicted in 2017, has had his channel purged. However, this standard seemingly hasn't been met in relation to JinBop, whose channel controversially remains up to this day, which has been widely memed online, but also criticised.

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Clips: YouTube/JinBop, YouTube/Sky Does Everything, HBO Entertainment/Warner Bros. Television

Production music provided by Epidemic Sound, Kevin Macleod, Lukrembo and DJ Quads

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