Content creators 'prank' people to increase their subscribers and promote their channels, but their victims are visibly traumatised.
Screengrab of a prank video on YouTube.
It is just another day at work for pranksters looking for a few subscriptions and likes more for the content — distant and poor cousins of Canadian hidden-candid-camera series Just for Laughs Gags — they upload on YouTube.
The trauma is visibly inexplicable for the gullible who fall prey to them.
The content typically depicts scenarios where individuals are approached, offering to drop them off at their destination. Once the victim boards the vehicle, the prankster creates a different scenario — like kidnapping — before revealing the real intent. The now-embarrassed victims are then forced to subscribe to their channels.
The outcome, so far, has not caused any explicit law and order issues, and the Telangana police have yet to act against the pranksters.
The pranksters have spared none. Children, women, and the elderly often fall prey to them. The videos are then uploaded to social media platforms and win millions of views, apparently providing the content creators with a sense of accomplishment while the victims are forced to grin and bear the humiliation.
One YouTube channel promoting pranks on credulous citizens is 2day2morrow Girls. The host, a Telugu-speaking woman, was seen approaching random individuals, offering them a lift. After initial reluctance, they accepted the offer, oblivious to what was in store.
A video uploaded a month ago showed her creating a kidnapping scenario with children, putting them in visible distress. After the hidden camera captured the responses of the scared children, she revealed the truth and prompted them to subscribe to the channel. She has been uploading such videos for the past five months.
The host often brandished a syringe if her targets refused to comply with her requests. In one instance, she was seen pressuring a man to sell drugs, while in another, she demanded organ donation, even offering to send multiple people to harvest the organ.
The locations mostly mentioned in the videos are in the Kothagudem district.
Mini Movie Entertainment, another YouTube channel, features a man who pranks children, women, and transgenders.
He explained that he contacted people through their acquaintances’ recommendations. For instance, in a recent video, he claimed to have spoken to a child’s mother about “kidnapping” the boy.
The man later picked up the child, offered him chocolates, and informed him that he had been “kidnapped”. When the child started crying, he consoled and took him to his parents.
Another channel, ArifThe Entertainment, is also engaged in similar behaviour. Arif pranks unsuspecting individuals in his YouTube channel, following a procedure similar to the woman offering lifts.
He, too, brandished syringes to threaten his “victims” into submission. He claimed to have killed his girlfriend and sought the victim’s help to dispose of the body by threatening to inject them with a toxic substance.
The kidnap prank did not impress Hyderabad-based Clinical Psychologist Bona Colaco, who works with children, adolescents, and adults. The videos worried her.
She detailed the detrimental effects the pranks could have on children. Such pranks, she said, could leave children scared and distressed. causing significant damage to the development of the brain.
Children may struggle to comprehend the situation, leading to prolonged physical reactions. Even if with parents’ consent, subjecting children to such pranks is inappropriate and can result in lasting consequences.
“They will require years of therapy to overcome the situation,” she told South First.
Colaco highlighted that while some adults may dismiss such pranks as harmless, others might experience traumatic flashbacks.
“This can lead to a heightened sense of vulnerability and anxiety, making them exhibit flight-or-fight responses,” she added.
The YouTube channel, 2day 2morrow, describes itself as providing exclusive news, breaking news, live debates, political analysis, exclusive interviews, press meets, close encounters, and more.
Mini Movie Entertainment’s disclaimer states that the videos are created solely for entertainment purposes and are not intended to cause harm or to be taken seriously.
When South First contacted the Telangana police, they said no complaints had been made against the pranksters.
In Andhra Pradesh, too, YouTubers are pushing the limits. One video showed them assaulting a physically disabled man in the Guntur district.
South First tried to contact two of these YouTubers over email. They have not yet responded. This report will be updated when they respond to the emails.
A legal expert said the uploaded videos and how they were shot are a public nuisance.
“The videos should be removed from the public domain as they amount to public nuisance. The behaviour exhibited in these videos is unacceptable, particularly if the intention is to convey a social message,” Vijay Gopal, an advocate practising in the Telangana High Court, said.
“Such actions cannot be deemed criminal unless they involve physically touching individuals as part of the prank. This issue is of paramount concern within the purview of the law, and ignorance cannot serve as a defence,” he stated.
“Governments should establish clear regulations dictating the permissible boundaries for creating such videos. It is imperative to file FIRs and prompt the police to take action against the video creators who profit from such pranks and amass thousands of subscribers,” he added.
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