Video: New Yorkers react to 12-year-old child bride marrying senior citizen

A woman approaches the young girl and takes her away from her supposed groom. Image: Coby Persin via Facebook 

In a social experiment that saw New Yorkers outraged, a 65-year-old-groom and and a 12-year-old child bride pose for wedding photos in the middle of iconic Times Square – and no one is about to stand back and let it happen.

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The social experiment was orchestrated by Coby Persin, a 21-year-old notorious prankster and Youtube sensation who has more than 1.9 million subscribers to his channel.

Coby explains that after watching a video about child marriage he was inspired to spread awareness about the issue and chose to conduct the experiment to see how the public would react to an older man marrying a child bride. Coby says that the video he watched informed him that child marriage is legal in more than 91 countries in the world, and in some parts of the United States marriage is legal for children as young as 12.

Coby is present during the social experiment and pretends to be a photographer hired by the bride and groom as he directs the young girl and older man to pose for photographs in various locations of notoriously crowded Times Square. As the bride and groom pose for photos onlookers approach and question both the man and the girl, many of them unable to fathom what they are witnessing.

Watch the video below: