In the world of YouTube pranks, long one of the platform's most popular genres, it's 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.
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 last week, 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. Trollstation already has one member serving time for a separate bombing hoax. Daniel Jarvis, 27, received the longest jail sentence, and will serve a total of seven months for both episodes.
"The hoaxes may have seemed harmless to them, but they caused genuine distress to a number of members of the public, who should be able to go about their daily business without being put in fear in this way," prosecutor Robert Short said in a statement.
Amina Maz, a production manager for Trollstation, said in an email that the sentencing was too harsh.
"A suspended sentence or community service would have acted as a deterrent," she wrote.
On Feb. 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 Thursday that the group has made 44 videos and that the number of complaints had been minimal. He said he and his brothers plan 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.
"This is just the beginning for us," Jalal wrote. "Jalals aren't just pranksters, we're Internet entrepreneurs."
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.
YouTube, which is owned by Google, said through a spokesman: "Prank videos have been part of the online video culture from the very beginning. While many prank comedians on YouTube have grown fan bases around the world through original and fun content, we also have strict policies that prohibit misconduct on YouTube. We enforce these policies with our community on YouTube but we have limited visibility or control over the actions people take when off our platform."
SundayMonday Business on 05/23/2016