YouTube pranks have been around since the dawn of YouTube, and their validity has been in question since day one. With all the current YouTube drama, many prank creators have come out finally telling their audience that their jokes are staged, and only for views and entertainment. Although there are many warnings around their videos, what about if someone got hurt?

That is just what happened on September 19, 2016. A young boy was found by his mother, hanging in a closet. This was not an apparent suicide, the boy’s siblings watched the entire situation unfold. Aundreis Bass wanted to recreate a hanging prank he saw on YouTube. While his mother was downstairs, unaware of the dangerous stunt Aundreis was about to commit, something went wrong. He started to struggle, causing the noose to tighten and he died in the hospital four days later. Many of us mourn for her loss, but could it have been prevented?

Many are protesting for the banning or censoring of the prank videos, and others are wanting the YouTubers to be held responsible for their audience. While this seems absurd, there is a large following behind this idea. The fact that the creators should answer for their thousands, if not millions, of viewers is too complex to enforce.

The bigger message from this tragedy is the fact that Aundreis’ mother will not allow her children on the internet without supervision. She believes that his death could’ve been prevented if she had been diligent and paid attention to what her children watched.

This brings up an entirely new argument into the mix that has been on parent’s minds for many years. With this growing reach to the internet, how do you protect your children? There is so much information and so many bad things that can occur due to the use of the internet, parents are very worried on how to protect their children.

You get your child a vaccination for an illness, but it seems impossible to protect them from the entire world of good, and bad, in their pockets. This is a great opportunity for the conversation to start. Please talk to your children and make sure they understand how dangerous the internet can be.