Youtube moves to ban ‘dangerous and traumatising’ stunt videos

YOUTUBE says it has banned certain prank videos from its site amid fears that users are endangering each other and traumatising young viewers.

In a statement, the video-sharing giant, which is owned by Google, said clips showing dangerous stunts, especially under the guise of viral challenges, had no place on Youtube.

The company said it was extending the ban to pranks that made people think they were in imminent physical danger or that caused emotional distress to children.

It cited as examples ones where people were made to think their homes were being burgled or where a child was told a parent had died.

In 2017 Mike and Heather Martin, from Maryland in the US, lost custody of two of their five children after “pranking” them in a series of Youtube videos, including one in which they told their youngest son he had been adopted by another family.

Youtube decided to act after a series of dangerous viral challenges was posted on the site. One prompted British Transport Police to open an investigation

‘Our guidelines prohibit content that encourages dangerous activities likely to result in serious harm’

this week after footage appeared of a teenager walking across a railway track wearing a blindfold. The video, viewed 200,000 times, was posted during a “bird box challenge” craze, so called after the Sandra Bullock film on Netflix about a mother who wears a blindfold to avoid seeing mysterious forces that cause people to take their own lives. The act quickly became an online challenge and prompted Netflix to issue its own warnings.

A Youtube spokesman said: “Our Community Guidelines prohibit content that encourages dangerous activities that are likely to result in serious harm, and today [we are] clarifying what this means for dangerous challenges and pranks.”

Youtube has previously tried to discourage people attempting dangerous pranks by demonetising the videos in the wake of a number of tragedies. Last year a 20-year-old woman from Minnesota was jailed after firing a bullet into a thick book held by her boyfriend with the intention of posting the result on social media. The stunt killed him.

Youtube has also struggled to suppress the spread of dangerous challenges that have seen teenagers eating washing machine detergent capsules and purposely setting fire to themselves. The craze of recreating scenes from the Bird Box horror film has included people attempting activities such as driving and cooking while wearing a blindfold.

Rescue services have attended incidents where Youtubers vying for viral fame have filmed stunts that have gone wrong. One incident saw firefighters taking an hour to free a 22-year-old Wolverhampton man who had cemented his head into a microwave.