YouTube bans videos of harmful pranks
YouTube bans videos of harmful pranks and dangerous challenges because these have already caused many accidents worldwide. The platform has committed to removing all such content and punishing those who have uploaded them
The recent events in the United States have led the world’s largest video platform to take measures against challenges that can be considered dangerous. YouTube bans videos of harmful pranks, those that are dangerous, or challenges that encourage activities that can cause serious accidents.
YouTube and pranks
On YouTube you can find videos of all kinds, from guides to music videos, including the wildest antics of popular YouTubers. Sometimes, these creators are responsible for posting videos with challenges that go viral in minutes and are copied by millions of people worldwide.
Some of these are not dangerous and you can try them with your friends to have a good time together, but others can cause traffic accidents. One of the latest dangerous viral challenges that has become popular online is the Bird Box Challenge. This involves covering your eyes while doing everyday tasks. Some people have chosen to do it while driving, which is extremely dangerous. The latest news about this challenge, and the reason the platform decided to remove such videos from its site, was about a 17-year-old American girl who crashed her car while driving with her eyes covered and recording herself on her phone.
To combat this wave of dangerous viral challenges and tasteless pranks, YouTube has decided to implement a new policy to control its content. The aim of this new rule is to prevent people from suffering serious harm. The platform itself stated: “we have updated external guidelines to make clear that we prohibit challenges that pose a risk of serious harm or death, and pranks that make victims believe they are in serious physical danger or cause children severe emotional distress.”
What the penalty involves
YouTube has decided that from now on all posts involving serious danger will be removed from its site. Furthermore, as a penalty for those who upload them, restrictions will be placed on the user’s account for 90 days. If the author uploads the video again after its removal or posts similar ones more than three times, their user account will be deleted. Those responsible for removing this content should be the people who uploaded it, and the company gives them two months to do so. If they choose not to remove it, YouTube will do it.
Comments on any post that refer to graphic violence or pornography will also be punished under YouTube’s new content policy because they can incite hatred or violence. These, like the videos, must also be removed.
Although this rule was announced after an accident in the United States, the video platform had already committed in April 2018 to removing this type of content from YouTube. But the truth is, as some users complain, many have not been removed and can still be viewed without problem.
These pranks or challenges can be very dangerous, but also very humiliating for the person targeted. Some, for example, involve bothering and hitting pedestrians, which makes anyone a potential victim of this kind of harmful and very distasteful prank.
