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YouTube Cracks Down on 'Harmful and Dangerous' Challenges and Pranks (polygon.com) 101

YouTube has set stricter guidelines for "harmful and dangerous" prank and challenge videos. From a report: "We've always had policies to make sure what's funny doesn't cross the line into also being harmful or dangerous," reads the YouTube guidelines. "Our Community Guidelines prohibit content that encourages dangerous activities that are likely to result in serious harm, and today clarifying what this means for dangerous challenges and pranks." YouTube's guidelines now further detail which of these popular videos push the line, including challenges such as the Tide Pod challenge and the Fire challenge -- anything "that can cause death and/or have caused death in some instances."

As for pranks, videos that make the victims believe they're in serious danger or cause severe emotional distress to children (further clarified with examples like faking the death of a parent) are no longer acceptable on the platform. Creators who host these types of videos on their channels will receive a grace period of two months to clean up their channel.

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YouTube Cracks Down on 'Harmful and Dangerous' Challenges and Pranks

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  • by Anonymous Coward

    You and I have different opinions of what constitutes dangerous activity

  • While the whole thing seems like a nanny state situation... isn't two months grace period far too long? In two months viral videos have spread far and wide and earned mountains of advertising revenue for the content creator. In two months the peak viewing audience has pretty much moved on to the next big thing... like an egg.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      I read that as two months from now, the grace period is over.

      That is, two months before they start to enforce this, and possibly demonetize channels, etc.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Content creators have two months to clean up their thumbnails. Vidoes that violate the community guidelines can still be reported and removed.
    • I've got an idea... make advertisers liable for reckless endangerment and wrongful death claims for people doing things they saw on youtube. If they paid a "creator" for making this video so that they could advertise during it, they are liable for the content of the video right? But "that will kill the platform" you say? Exactly. Maybe the reason the platform is bad for society is that it is inherently unjust. A company can use the basest filth to promote their brand (even target viewers of that filth),
      • by Shotgun ( 30919 )

        So should Netflix execs be jailed for starting that whole birdcage thing?

  • by stevez67 ( 2374822 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @05:44PM (#57974244)

    They can publish all the "feel good" guidelines they want. Until they can effectively and promptly enforce consistent guidelines, it's all marketing drivel aimed at keeping the lawyers and regulators at bay.

    • by bobbied ( 2522392 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @05:57PM (#57974290)

      They can publish all the "feel good" guidelines they want. Until they can effectively and promptly enforce consistent guidelines, it's all marketing drivel aimed at keeping the lawyers and regulators at bay.

      Exactly this. They have all sorts of rules and guidelines but we all know that unless the PR $#!+ hits the fan they don't enforce them regularly. They are in the business of selling ads and as long as they are not getting raked over the coals for something, they don't have the resources to police everybody. Just keeping porn at bay is a full time job, even though there are other, more popular options for that stuff.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      It's all about pushing the current creators out and turning Youtube into Cable TV Jr.

    • by Falos ( 2905315 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @06:19PM (#57974412)

      Aw, you say that dismissively. Your customers wanted signaling, and you achieved that. Mission complete. It's not like actually being effectual matters, just advertisers, who were getting I Want To See The Manager in their inboxes.

      Part of me wanted to celebrate a decrease in garbage on Youtube, but then again, it's about as impressive as removing "All 1% milk cartons" from a landfill.

    • Until they can effectively and promptly enforce consistent guidelines, it's all marketing drivel aimed at keeping the lawyers and regulators at bay.

      So.. we good then? If you've solved the problem of lawyers and regulators, then you've solved the problem. It's not like it's in society's interest to censor web hosts.

  • Will the general Population accept it. Google is great it. Thats why China wants them to build their search engine.
  • ok (Score:1, Troll)

    by bhcompy ( 1877290 )
    But nazis, antivaxxers, etc can keep posting like normal
    • by H3lldr0p ( 40304 )

      Not to mention that the heyday of prank videos has come and gone. The changes to their promotion algo effectively nuked them. What is YT trying to do with this change to their TOS?

  • by Proudrooster ( 580120 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @06:05PM (#57974328) Homepage

    But what about the Darwin Awards [capitalberg.com]?
    Seriously YouTube, what are you thinking?

    No more Tide Pod challenges, trying to swallow cinnamons, or driving blindfolded.

    This makes absolutely no sense.

    • by jwhyche ( 6192 )

      While I agree with you on tide pods, swallow cinnamon, and other stupid self abusive shit, driving while blindfolded can get other people killed.

    • I must admit, I find a certain hilarity associated with watching people eat cinnamon powder etc. As long as they're ONLY hurting themselves, it's funny. When they do stuff that could hurt others, it's not funny. Random-stranger-minding-their-own-business did not sign up to be part of your shenanigans

      While we're at it, can we ban the following:

      - 10 things I hate about my . Inevitably shows person with their head in their hands in despair
      - 60 minute long videos for content that really is 5 mins
      -
  • by Anonymous Coward

    I think it's good to filter the stupid from society.

    • by dcw3 ( 649211 )

      I think it's good to filter the stupid from society.

      Agreed, what would you like done with your body?

  • I'm waiting for the day YouTube starts banning motorcycle chases and the like. Someone is eventually going to make the case that watching such videos encourage dangerous behavior.
    • by epyT-R ( 613989 )

      First it was the religious right, now it's the progressive left... all in the name of the children of course.

      • For now... don't forget, children don't place very high on the Victimhood Hierarchy, so this policy is ok as long as it doesn't hurt anyone with a higher rank... and if it does, fuck the children... literally: recall the enlightened progressive European Court of Human Rights, desperate to defend Muslim feelings from those crazy people who for some reason take issue with people having sex with 9 year olds, declared that as long as you keep sleeping with them after they hit puberty, it's not pedophilia, and t
  • by Anonymous Coward

    I don't know which is worse - that someone would prank a child by telling them their parent died, or that someone would watch it. This level of depravity makes me despair for the status and future of the human race.

  • funny political memes and one side of politics?
    No blasphemy and the history of faiths/cults?
    Wait for Germany, France and Spain to demand the removal of "harmful" political and historical content.
    News about protests will be removed.
  • He's released from rehab within the next week.

  • by AndyKron ( 937105 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @08:05PM (#57974864)
    I hope they keep the butt rockets. Who doesn't like a good butt rocket video?
  • How will Outrageous Acts of Science survive? Although to be honest I have always been shocked at what they have been able to find and somewhat concerned that they are in a subtle way encouraging some crazy videos.

  • 'anything "that can cause death and/or have caused death in some instances."'

    that is basically anything, i can die eating a bowl of soup, walking down the stairs, etc.

  • It's about time something was done about this! I can only imagine how many people have died because they did some stupid stunt they saw on Youtube.

The key elements in human thinking are not numbers but labels of fuzzy sets. -- L. Zadeh

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