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YouTube cracks down on Tide Pod challenge videos

The video streaming service said its community guidelines prohibit content that encourages dangerous activities that have a risk of causing physical harm.

YouTube is cracking down on a dangerous new online trend: Teens putting poisonous laundry gel pods in their mouths and eating them like candy in "Tide Pod challenge" videos.

The Google-owned video streaming service said it would remove the videos. In a a statement, YouTube said its community guidelines prohibit content that encourages dangerous activities that have a risk of causing physical harm.

"Videos showing people participating in the Tide Pod challenge are removed from YouTube when flagged and the channel is given a strike for violating our Community Guidelines, which prohibit harmful or dangerous content," the company said.

In 2017, poison control centers received reports of more than 10,500 exposures to highly concentrated packed of laundry detergent by children 5 and younger, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers.

Procter & Gamble, which owns Tide, told Fast Company it was working with social media networks "to remove harmful content that is not consistent with their policies."

In 2015 The Onion wrote about Tide pods from the perspective of a child who wanted to eat them following reports that the pods were intriguing to toddlers.

College Humor's Don't Eat the Laundry Pods video, which showed a college student attempting to eat Tide Pods, teed off the online hubbub in 2017. Dares to eat laundry pods followed on Reddit and Twitter.

More recently, YouTube has become the online venue of choice for teens putting Tide Pods in their mouth, even cooking with them. The laundry pods pose serious health risks for children.

Dr. Alfred Aleguas Jr., managing director of the Florida Poison Information Center in Tampa, told USA TODAY that the College Humor video could result in a "life-threatening" situation.

Swallowing even a small amount of the highly-concentrated detergent found in pods can cause diarrhea and vomiting. In some cases, some of the detergent could even find its way into the lungs and cause breathing difficulties.

If you or someone you know has eaten a laundry detergent pod, call the national poison help hotline at 1-800-222-1222 or text POISON to 797979 to save the number in your phone.

"Our laundry pacs are a highly concentrated detergent meant to clean clothes," Tide said in a statement. "They should not be played with, whatever the circumstance is, even if meant as a joke."

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