Due to a YouTube challenge: two children disappeared from home
An 11-year-old and a 7-year-old from India secretly left their home after watching "Secret House" videos in which participants hide for 24 hours. About two hours later, they were located safe and sound and returned to their families.
Two children, aged 11 and 7, disappeared from their home in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, and the police launched a search after their family members were unable to locate them. About two hours later, they were found hiding in an isolated spot near a farm — in an attempt to imitate a challenge they saw on YouTube.
According to News18, an Indian news site, the children said during their questioning that they had watched gaming content on YouTube and decided to try one of the challenges themselves. When they did not return home, family members searched for them in the neighborhood and at the homes of relatives. After no sign of the two was found, they turned to the police and requested their assistance.
Decided to turn the game into reality
According to the police officer in charge of the investigation, the children told the officers that they had watched the gaming videos and decided to recreate the challenge themselves. As part of the game they saw, participants build a hiding place or a "secret house" and stay in it for 24 hours according to the established rules.
According to the Indian newspaper Dainik Jagran, the children found an isolated place near a farm and turned it into their hiding base. The two planned to stay there for 24 hours without informing their family members. The search was conducted quickly after the report of their disappearance. The officers scanned possible areas and eventually located the two while they were hiding in an isolated area near a farm; the children were found within about two hours from the start of the search.
The incident drew attention in India due to the fact that the children tried to transfer a challenge they saw in online content to the real world. Local reports emphasized that the two did not try to disappear permanently, but left home with the goal of hiding for 24 hours and imitating the game they had watched.
