How to block prank videos on YouTube

Block staged pranks, public stunts, and fake conflict videos on YouTube with title and channel rules on your child's computer.

What prank videos show

Prank videos set up a surprise, conflict or scare and film the target's response. Common formats include fake breakups, public disruption, staged theft, home scares and jokes that damage an object before a reveal. Many channels mix these setups with challenges and scripted group drama.

Younger viewers may read a staged scene as real, while older kids may focus on copying the joke. Parents often notice loud confrontations, blurred bystanders, police themed thumbnails or a run of similar clips after one prank video enters the watch history.

Title and channel rules to use

These are plain text block rules that work with Vidward’s current rule engine. They do not use regular expressions. Add only the values that fit what your child watches. A channel rule hides every upload from that channel, not only videos about this topic. Use one only when you want the whole channel hidden.

Words in the title

prank
social experiment
fake breakup
gone wrong

Channels to block

Stokes Twins
Ben Azelart
Topper Guild
FaZe Rug
Airrack

The word prank gives the widest cover. Two of these need a second look. Gone wrong also appears in gaming, sports and repair videos. Social experiment is the phrase psychology lessons, documentaries and news pieces use in their titles, so it blocks schoolwork as readily as pranks. Add either one only if your child's feed uses it for pranks, and take it out again if a lesson goes missing.

Add the rules in Vidward

1
Create your free Vidward account. The trial runs for 7 days with no credit card.
2
Add your child in the dashboard and note the activation code it shows. The code is reusable and stays valid until you regenerate it.
3
On your child's computer, install the Vidward extension from the Chrome Web Store, open its welcome page, and enter that activation code to link the computer to your child's profile.
4
If the child uses Block specific content, open the Channels tab and add one rule at a time.
5
For a title word, reopen the form, choose Block, select "Words in the title", then paste the value and save.
6
For a channel, reopen the form, choose Block, and select "Channel" rather than "Channel name". "Channel" gives you a search box: type the name, then pick the channel from the results. That stores the channel's own ID, so the rule cannot match a different channel that happens to share the display name.
7
A browser that is already running can take up to five minutes to fetch dashboard changes. Restart the browser to fetch them sooner.

Using Approved channels only?

That strategy blocks videos from channels you have not approved, but Shorts can still slip past it. Do not paste these channel names into the Approve form because that would let the channel through. Leave them off the approved list instead. Turn on Block Shorts in Filters if you want those clips hidden too. Title word rules are not available in this mode.

What YouTube gives you built in

Can YouTube block prank videos as a topic?

YouTube lets parents block specific channels for supervised child accounts, but it has no prank category block for regular YouTube. Don't recommend channel only changes suggestions from the channel you choose. It does not stop a prank from another account, search results or a direct link. YouTube Kids offers channel and video blocks, which still work one item at a time.

Read our guide to YouTube’s parent settings if you want to compare those choices before adding rules.