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basically this YouTuber named RiceMan made a video in which he faked killing himself in front of his mom. And recently an 11 year old boy from Georgia thought it was a good idea to recreate the prank and hung himself as a result. You can see details from the video above.

What are your thoughts?

First of all, pretending to kill yourself has got to be the lowest of "pranks" one can do, especially to your parents. I know people who have friends that have killed themselves, and I myself have gone to a medical ward while I was seriously depressed in high school. That shit is not funny.

Second of all, there really needs to be disclaimers on not to try these things at home if they really are dangerous if done improperly. Many people have died doing something fake that would be lethal, and it turning out that it actually was real (Bruce Lee's son being a prime example).

As distasteful as it is, I couldn't resist.

I liken this to the kid that jumps off a building because he thinks he can fly like Superman. Kids sometimes do incredibly stupid things and their parents unfortunately can't always be there to stop them.

@yummines
The Youtube prankster did have a "don't try this at home. It's incredibly dangerous" warning right at the start of his video.

First off, my condolences to the family on their loss.

Second of all, as much as I dislike the notion of such pranks, if they have a safety disclaimer, then by all means, they are free to post it. What the viewer does in regards to disclaimed content is on them. (Hence the oft seen phrase "DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME." and so on..) Your standard consumer/viewer is expected to act in a normal manner in concerns to the product/content presented. Creators, however, should, and usually do, keep in mind how their product/content will influence their consumers/viewers. Now, if the content did not present such a disclaimer, then the creator may (and probably will) have some culpability. That being said, considering the circumstances, it would be unwise to assign full or major culpability to the content creator, to the child, or to the parents.

Thirdly, parents, despite their best intentions, should (reasonably) monitor what their children are exposed to on the internet (or rather, in media in general) and educate and raise them to discern the potential risks and consequences of an action influenced by such. (e.g. replicating a dangerous stunt vs safely building a nifty birdhouse.)

(Not saying the boy's parents were not doing so, just stating this in general.)

Finally, I find that this prank is, in my opinion, not very funny, and again the fact that it's absolutely dangerous does not make it any less tasteless. It is sad that a child accidentally ended his life through replicating a dangerous (and insensitive) stunt for the sake of amusement. I must applaud how the mother is handling the aftermath of this tragedy, and again, my condolences on her family's loss.

The prank itself isn't funny or anything but there was a warning to not replicate such an act so I'm no sure who to put the blame on here.

I will say this, Riceman will not get any legal punishment due to how he did have a disclaimer in the beginning of the video.
However, he will most likely get a whole bunch of hate from social media due to this.

As for me, I'm rather indifferent because the stupidity in both cases sort of cancel each other out. Riceman shouldn't have made a video in that nature (any prank involving death or suicide like this is more idiotic than funny to me), and the kid should've known better not to do it with the disclaimer.

And the 2016 Darwin Award goes to…

It is just an antic, relative.

Anyway, fake pranks are stupid enough but this is even more stupid. I hope after this we see less """pranks""" on youtube.

I feel like we are legitamatly going towards a slanneshi cycle of constantly demanding more shock in our lives .

At this rate we'll be opening the Eye of Terror thousands of years early