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

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.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.