1. I've never been placed in the positions of those involved in these issues. 

2. Manipulation is involved and I may have some bias. 

If you're still interested, here we go.

Consent. In today's society, this really shouldn't be a problem that people face every day. I personally don't understand why some people have issues understanding that no means no. Sex is something that should be discussed between two people in advance and, with the amount of communication that happens between couples nowadays, there's always a right time. Sure, spontaneity is great, but only if you know the person well enough to sense when the right time is. Even then, if they show signs that they're not comfortable with the situation, one should have enough self control to restrain themselves. Heaven knows they can find other ways to remove their 'frustration'.

I've gone slightly off topic from what I had originally planned so I'm going to try and steer things back to my point. By now, you may be wondering what that point is or why I feel the need to make it, so let me explain.

Role models. Everyone has someone in their life that they look up to. It may be their parents, siblings or even someone they've never met. For the last 3 years, my role model was Alex Day. When the rumours came out that he had been taking advantage of women, I refused to believe it. However, Alex Day disappeared from the Internet for almost a year when those accusations were made. I'm not just talking YouTube, he sent out no tweets, his weekly email-newsletters stopped. Honestly? I've never seen so little activity from someone who was such a prominent figure online. This made me consider 2 possibilities.

1. He was guilty. As someone who has done things wrong in the past, I recognised the basic human instinct to hide. Fight or flight, right? So perhaps his guilt had gotten the better of him and he retreated into the cave he came from. With this response, he had no opportunity to either explain himself or try to prove his innocence. I suppose if he was guilty, explaining himself wouldn't really have don't any good. No-one is willing to listen to someone who has taken advantage of young girls and hear 'their side of the story'. 
2. He was innocent.  Many of his closest friends were seen to publicly turn their backs on him and the community of followers he had created were joining the bandwagon of destruction started by a small group of (potentially) liars. So much for "innocent until proven guilty", huh? On the internet especially, it is very easy to throw out your opinions without regard for the repercussions. If Alex Day was in the position where he was being accused of things he didn't actually do, his ability to prove his innocence is almost nil. How do you prove you HAVEN'T done something? Sure, an alibi or whatever but if you think about the classic playground argument... "Miss! ___ hit me?". An endless loop of "No I didn't", "Yes you did" ensues. It's much easier to show Miss the mark on your am than it is to show the not-mark on your arm. It's impossible to show something that isn't there!