Various kinds of ”pranks” and challenges are very popular these days. You surely know what am I talking about: Spider-Dog, plank challenge, Bird Box challenge et cetera. Some of them are scary, others are funny (or both), but many of them have one unfortunate thing in common: they are dangerous. The best and latest example of this danger is the aforementioned Bird Box challenge. Based on the recent movie starring Sandra Bullock, it has people trying to live through the day blindfolded, just as the movie characters are forced to. A few days ago one not very bright 17 years old girl from the US has decided that she too will try to complete this task; she turned on the camera, put on the blindfold, started… the car and drove off. The consequences were, well, unsurprising, as the girl totalled the car and almost killed a passerby who barely got out of the way in time.

That was the last straw for YouTube. The video platform have announced that, starting today, it will be deleting every video that depicts life-threatening situations. No more clips of people filming themselves with one feet over the edge of canyon, no more planking at the stop of a construction site and definitely no more blind driving. During the next two months, YT will systematically delete any such videos, but their creators and/or uploaders will not be punished. After that period, anyone who publishes such a video will risk receiving a ban.

The bright side of this situation is that there will be less people risking bodily harm for the sake of a cheap laugh. Dark side is that we will not have that laugh either from their antics or from the people themselves. Is it worth it? You make the call.