Bird Box Challenge, Dangerous Stunt Videos Banned From YouTube

Without specifically mentioning the Bird Box challenge, Google’s video sharing platform YouTube said it will no longer allow dangerous stunt videos to live on its site. In the challenge, people drive cars and otherwise move around wearing a blindfold, playing off Sandra Bullock’s character in the Netflix movie “Bird Box.”

In the movie, people die when they see a mysterious evil force decimating the population. To avoid seeing it, Bullock’s character and her children wear blindfolds as they take a dangerous journey through the woods and down a river to find sanctuary.

In a recent example of the challenge gone awry, a Utah teen crashed her car after driving it blindfolded. No one was injured in the collision, but police said the crash was a “predictable result.”

YouTube said in updated community guidelines that it would “prohibit content that encourages dangerous activities that are likely to result in serious harm,” saying that challenges that can or have caused death “have no place on YouTube.” It specifically mentioned the Tide Pod challenge in which the participants posted videos of themselves chewing on the brightly colored detergent packets.

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Consumer Reports said the craze helped account for 74 percent of detergent-related poison control center calls that required medical treatment.

YouTube’s decision to ban dangerous challenge videos from its platform comes after Netflix issued a warning about the Bird Box challenge.

“Can’t believe I have to say this, but: PLEASE DO NOT HURT YOURSELVES WITH THIS BIRD BOX CHALLENGE,” the video streaming service tweeted. “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.”

In its statement, YouTube said it’s home to many beloved viral challenges and pranks, including Jimmy Kimmel’s Terrible Christmas Presentsprank or the water bottle flip challenge, and that those can remain on its platform.

Photo: A view of decor at the after party for the New York Special Screening Of The Netflix Film “Bird Box” at Alice Tully Hall on December 17, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Netflix)