YouTube pranks break the law

In the world of YouTube pranks, long one of the platform’s most popular genres, it’s usually all fun and games — until someone incites a public panic and gets arrested.

Prank videos are a popular Internet pastime that are spreading rapidly to other sites. Tubular Labs, a social analytics firm, estimates that searches for prank-related videos on social media account for some 7 billion views this year, with YouTube, Facebook and Vine making up the majority of the search traffic.

The quest for viral fame has a cost. Some pranksters have recently found themselves facing criminal prosecution and jail. But the legal trouble has not deterred them, and their videos continue to attract fans and imitators.

Fake art heists and a kidnapping in England
For members of a popular YouTube prank account called Trollstation, wearing pantyhose on their faces and running through London’s National Portrait Gallery screaming “Get the paintings!” probably seemed like a good idea at the time.But recently, a court handed down jail sentences to four men accused of behaving in a way that incited fear and provoked violence in the fake gallery heist and for a staged kidnapping at another museum. Daniel Jarvis, 27, received the longest jail sentence, and will serve a total of seven months for both episodes.


Fake terror attacks in Australia
On February 25, three people in Melbourne were arrested by counterterrorism authorities after posting a series of videos on YouTube and Facebook that depicted men dressed in traditional Middle Eastern robes perpetrating staged drive-by shootings and bombings. Hours later, Max, Arman and Rebeen Jalal, who operate the Jalal Brothers social media accounts, confirmed on their Facebook account that they’d been arrested.

The brothers, who range in age from 16 to 20, were released on bail under the agreement that they not post more videos. In the months since the arrest, they have been unapologetic and have accused the police of racial profiling.Max Jalal, 20, said in a Facebook interview that the group has made 44 videos and that the number of complaints had been minimal. He said he and his brothers planned to move to Los Angeles soon to pursue a career in entertainment, and they were preparing to release a game in the Apple app store.

Pranking the police in Los Angeles
A trio of Toronto-based YouTube pranksters called Nelk have stretched the limits of police tolerance. In January, the group’s members filmed themselves telling Los Angeles Police Department officers that they had a “bunch of coke” in the back of their car during a traffic stop. At least two other videos have shown the group members trying to pull pranks on uniformed officers.The behavior “could lead to a use of force, somebody could get injured,” Sgt. Michael Fox told CBS Los Angeles at the time. The department did not return a request for further comment.

The attention seems to have paid off: On May 5, the group announced on Twitter that they would be producing a TV show.