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Following his face reveal, Minecraft YouTuber Clay "Dream" is headed for the headlines once again, albeit in an unwanted way. On October 14, 2022, a burner account (@burner39413705) on Twitter released screenshots of text messages between Dream and Anastasia, one of his former fans. The screenshots, although not explicit in nature, contained suggestive messages. Following the leak, Anastasia took to her Twitter account (now private) to shed some light on the matter.
She claimed that she was "groomed" by Dream when she was 17. It should be noted that the interactions took place in 2020 when the streamer was 20 years old. Following that, Dream shared three separate Tweets (now deleted) from his alternate account to refute the claims. He has also shared a Twitlonger post to further his defense.
A chronological explanation of Dream's "grooming" allegations
To begin with, the allegations came forward with the burner account. The first set of screenshots included a few of the tweets that Anastasia had made in the wake of Dream's face reveal. The 20-year-old claimed that the YouTuber uncovered his face because he was afraid that she would leak it first.
The second set of screenshots documented further interactions between the pair. Following that, conversations on iMessage were also shared. According to the text, Dream supposedly invited the then-minor Anastasia to his "bedroom" or "kitchen."
A concluding set of screenshots included Anastasia's statement on how she felt it was inappropriate for Dream to be "this close" to her due to the power dynamics and age gap. The entire saga engendered #Dreamisafreak across Twitter.
The leaks were promptly followed up by Dream's response. In a now-deleted tweet on his alternate account, the YouTuber claimed the accusations to be inaccurate and erroneous. He extended his thoughts to the actual victims of pedophilia and grooming.
His spontaneous response generated divided opinions among fans. Following scrutiny, Dream shared a Twitlonger post on his alternate account detailing his side of the narrative. The elaborate statement touched on several points. In one paragraph, the 23-year-old said:
"It was just friendly conversation. In these screenshots, them being 18 years old is mentioned in their bio, and I also very clearly asked them for their age. I did not act inappropriately with this person, and any attempt to equate these messages to grooming is not only disgusting but is insulting to victims who actually experienced grooming and still have trauma as a result."
He reiterated that, to his knowledge, Anastasia was 18. He continued:
"Once again, she was 18 years old, says she was 18 years old, and even had a boyfriend while she was friendly with me. This being warped into me being a groomer and the fact that she is and was 18 is scary and sad, and a huge reason as to why it is so hard to interact one on one with anybody online as a creator, especially people from within your communities."
However, he confessed that some of the screenshots were authentic. The Youtuber remarked that the screenshots in the iMessage screenshots were false since his iMessage number is not linked to his TikTok. He said:
"Part of this thread includes cringey flirt text messages (again, when they were 18) that were supposedly from me, because it says that it is from their contacts when they go to my tiktok. this is impossible since I use a google voice number on my tiktok account which doesn’t have the ability to iMessage. The other information is false, and this has unfortunately blown up into something that it simply isnt. Regardless, she was 18 years old and had 18 publicly available in her twitter bio."
He concluded his statement by extending his thoughts to victims of pedophilia and grooming. He added:
"My heart goes out to actual victims of pedophilia and grooming, and again, I’m extremely sorry that it took as long as it did for me to reply. I wanted to make sure I included everything. This is all of the information I have, but like past situations involving me, I know people are going to run with whatever fits their narrative best."
Multiple YouTubers, Twitteratis, and Reddit users have already covered the entire controversy. While some claim that it is a desperate attempt to garner attention, others side with the alleged victim. It remains to be seen if there will be any further chapters to the drama.
