'Bird Box' Challenge Uproar Helps Lead To YouTube Banning Dangerous Pranks And Challenges

01/16/2019 10:28 am EST

Despite warnings against doing so, Bird Box challenges have still popped up all over the place, and YouTube is making some changes and banning dangerous pranks and challenges.

YouTube issued a new announcement regarding strengthening enforcement of community guidelines yesterday. The post brought up three areas that it is going to either make changes to or more significantly enforce thanks to community feedback. Those include custom thumbnails, external links, and dangerous challenges and pranks, and that last one is most likely a result of the backlash from dangerous Bird Box challenges that have taken over in recent weeks.

Here's the full rundown on their new approach to dangerous challenges and pranks. "Dangerous challenges and pranks: Reminder – content that encourages violence or dangerous activities that may result in serious physical harm, distress or death violates our harmful and dangerous policy, so we're clarifying what this means for dangerous challenges and pranks. YouTube is home to many beloved viral challenges and pranks, but we need to make sure what's funny doesn't cross the line into also being harmful or dangerous. We've updated our external guidelines to make it clear that we prohibit challenges presenting a risk of serious danger or death, and pranks that make victims believe they're in serious physical danger, or cause children to experience severe emotional distress. Read more in this Dangerous Challenges & Pranks FAQ."

The changes take place immediately, but there is a grace period that they are allowing for users to change and adjust their content to fit their new guidelines.

This comes after increased scrutiny on Bird Box challenges gone wrong. Recently a person in Layton Utah got into an accident because the driver covered their eyes while driving. Thankfully the accident resulted in no injuries, but the vehicles involved weren't so lucky and had significant damage.

Jake Paul also almost got hit by a car after he and his friends did a 24 hour Bird Box challenge video and wandered out into the middle of a busy intersection with blindfolds on. Again, no one was hurt, but it could've very quickly gone downhill, and that's part of the reason why Netflix has released warnings not to do these type of stunts.

"Can't believe I have to say this, but: PLEASE DO NOT HURT YOURSELVES WITH THIS BIRD BOX CHALLENGE," Netflix tweeted on January 2. "We don't know how this started, and we appreciate the love, but Boy and Girl have just one wish for 2019 and it is that you not end up in the hospital due to memes."

We'll just have to wait and see what kind of effect YouTube's new guidelines have on Bird Box challenges.

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