YouTube says it will remove videos of people taking part in the ‘Tide Pod challenge’, a dangerous craze proving popular in the US.<\/p>\n
Tide is an American brand of laundry detergent that uses pods covered by plastic which dissolve in the washing machine.<\/p>\n
Some people have been chewing or swallowing them and posting videos online.<\/p>\n
YouTube says channels sharing the videos will now receive a “strike”.<\/p>\n
Videos will be removed when they are flagged by users, YouTube says, and the channel in question will have its access to the site limited for three months as a result of the strike.<\/p>\n
YouTube’s community guidelines prohibit content that encourages dangerous or harmful activities.<\/p>\n
“We work to quickly remove flagged videos that violate our policies,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement.<\/p>\n
‘They should not be played with’<\/strong><\/p>\n The craze has been linked directly to an unusually high number of poisonings being reported in the US so far in 2018.<\/p>\n In the first 15 days of 2018, 39 people between the ages of 13 and 19 contacted the American Association of Poison Control Centres (AAPCC) to report issues of intentional poisoning.<\/p>\n Swallowing Tide pods were related to 91% of these, according to the the AAPCC.<\/p>\n In comparison, there were only 39 reports of intentional poisoning in this age group in both 2016 and 2017.<\/p>\n People who swallow pods could suffer seizures, pulmonary edema (excess fluid in the lungs), breathing difficulties, coma, or even death in extreme cases, they warned.<\/p>\n Procter & Gamble, which manufactures Tide, says its pods “should not be played with, whatever the circumstance, even if meant as a joke”.<\/p>\n “Laundry pacs are made to clean clothes. Like all household cleaning products, they must be used properly and stored safely.”<\/p>\n Earlier this month, Tide warned people against the challenge in a video shared online.<\/p>\n They said that the pods are for “doing laundry. Nothing else.”<\/p>\n