(Content warning: There are references made to suicide throughout this article.)

MAKE NO MISTAKE about it – UK vlogger Saffron Barker hates being late. Who  does though, really?

The YouTuber, who recently collaborated with Penneys on a collection, copped a lot of heat after a recent vlog of hers showed her complaining and rolling her eyes about a delayed train. 

The reason for the delay? Someone had tried to kill themselves by jumping in front of the train.

In a now deleted vlog, Saffron says, while rolling her eyes: “It should have taken me 50 minutes and instead it took four and a half hours, so that was amazing.

Obviously, it’s really sad, some one did get hit by a train. But it meant that I couldn’t get home.”

Cringing yourself into oblivion? Same. 

After an apology which flopped among fans, she revised her comments and issued another statement across her social media channels.

I completely understand how insensitive my comments were, I can see how it would appear that I wasn’t being considerate of the awful incident but in no way did I mean it like that.”

In a follow-up vlog, the 18 year-old said that she would “never in a million years roll her eyes at the victim”.

I think anyone who knows me know I wouldn’t roll my eyes at the victim. When I edit my vlogs I just drag and drop them in, I don’t watch them.”

She eventually apologised, before vlogging her Primark ‘sleepover’ launch party. 

Can’t see the video? Click here.

Her actions have prompted calls to boycott her range and her channel over her lack of remorse following the incident.

In the same week, social media star Brother Nature – Kelvin Pena – was called out after old, unsavoury tweets of his “resurfaced” (i.e. someone went and searched a few dodgy keywords to see if he really was as wholesome as he lets on.)

The tweets, which date back to 2011-2012, when Kelvin would have been a preteen (he is now 20 years old) are bad on several levels. Some are racist (“Jay-Z look like a monkey”), others misogynistic (“when I grow up I wanna be like Chris Brown. So if my girlfriend tried to look through my phone while driving I can choke and punch her :D.”) Several other tweets expressed anti-Semitic sentiments.

In a post on Twitter, Kelvin said:

“I started using Twitter when I was 12 years old, I was very impressionable and was seeking attention. 

I was a child and am now a man asking you to accept the apology of a young boy.”

Brother Nature / Twitter Brother Nature / Twitter / Twitter

These kind of stories are becoming more prevalent within the news cycle, especially when it comes to influencers. The internet’s made it pretty impossible for anyone or anything to be forgotten forever, especially when it comes to people’s “edgy” attempts at humour on the internet back in the day.

While it’s right to call people out on their present day problematic behaviour – i.e. Saffron – it’s important to remember that nobody came out of the womb “woke”. Much larger public figures have avoided being “cancelled” for doing and saying, it could be argued – much worse. (Taking Kelvin’s tweet as an example, Chris Brown still has a career years after abusing multiple women.)

What warrants a “cancelling” then when it comes to our faves? It’s a hard call, especially given the factors at play. Should someone be punished for thoughtless tweets sent as a child, when social commentary wasn’t as conscious as it is now? Can we expect an 18 year-old maturity to extend beyond their own self-obsession; the kind that comes with being a teenager?

Saffron did a bad thing, as did Kelvin. Are they bad people? Fundamentally, probably not not. Kelvin hasn’t been pulled up on any recent questionable tweets, which would lead me to believe his apology is truthful. As for Saffron, let’s just put it down to the fact that she’s immature (not that she’s 18 – I’m sure there are a lot of 18 year-olds who could muster up a stronger apology than hers.)

Let’s continue to educate before rushing to anyone’s cancellation party. 

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