YouTube’s ‘female Viagra’ prank is encouraging spiking drinks for views

YouTube’s trust and safety team is removing videos following a Polygon inquiry that belong to a disturbing prank trend centering around men seemingly spiking a woman’s drink with over-the-counter sex stimulants.

The videos usually run between 10 and 30 minutes. A man is seen in each video purchasing drugs they refer to as female sex stimulants. Normal, prescription Viagra facilitates an erection by increasing blood flow, but “Female Viagra,” which often refers to over-the-counter or prescription stimulants, reportedly physically increase a woman’s sexual desire. They can be purchased at stores like Walgreens and CVS.

These videos center on allegedly giving women stimulants without their knowledge, filming their reaction and either making fun of or trying to hook up with her while she’s under the influence. In this video, a boyfriend bought “some of the strongest” pills he could find, made a few drinks and supposedly spiked it. He never actually showed himself putting the pills in the drink, but insinuates the action, later admitting to the deed when confronted by his girlfriend.

“Why would you do that, Derek?” she asked after he admited everything. “That’s not cool. I feel really weird right now. That’s not funny. You can’t put something in my drink like that. This does not feel natural to me at all. Derek, you can’t record someone like that. This is embarrassing.”

This video had 2.2 million views at the time Polygon viewed it. YouTube has since taken it down, along with a number of other examples Polygon provided to the company. Many of the videos Polygon came across were also monetized, and amassed hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of views.

A YouTube spokesperson told Polygon, “YouTube has clear policies prohibiting harmful or dangerous content,” adding the company works ”with experts to develop these policies and quickly remove flagged videos that violate them.”

Not only is spiking someone’s drink without their knowledge potentially a crime depending on your state of residence in the United States, especially considering that no one involved knows whether an adverse reaction may occur, but these videos also violate YouTube’s community guidelines.

“While it might not seem fair to say you can’t show something because of what viewers might do in response, we draw the line at content that intends to incite violence or encourage dangerous or illegal activities that have an inherent risk of serious physical harm or death,” read YouTube’s community guidelines regarding harmful and dangerous content.

“Videos that we consider encouraging dangerous or illegal activities include, among other things, instructional bomb making, choking games, hard drug use, or other acts where serious injury may result.”

This hasn’t stopped creators from participating in, and earning revenue, from the videos. Another video showed a man breaking apart a capsule and pouring it into a drink for his girlfriend. She complained about feeling weird and tingly, growing concerned about her increased heart rate. It’s only at the end of the 30-minute video, when she’s thrashing around on a bed, that he confesses to the prank. This video, from two weeks ago, had just over 500,000 views.

Other videos find men prefacing the action with an acknowledgment that it sounds disturbing even to them.

“I was going to look up reviews to see if it has a taste difference if I put it in her drink,” Conner Bobay, a creator with about 2 million subscribers amassed on two channels, said in his prank video. “This is messed up. It sounds so bad, like, putting a sex stimulant in her drink. But it’s not like that, it’s just a popular prank video. It’s funny.”

By the end of the video, Bobay’s girlfriend confronted him, upset.

“You’re putting stuff in my body that you know freaks me out,” she said in the video. “I can’t even take Advil.”

This video had 3.6 million views.

There are also videos featuring women buying off-brand, over-the-counter Viagra-like pills, and spiking their boyfriends’ drinks as part of the similar prank trend.

Even if the pranks are staged, or both parties consented, none of the videos Polygon came across contained any kind of disclaimer. None of the videos specifically warned viewers about the dangers of this prank. Everything looks authentic, and the message conveyed through the prank is that it’s an easy way to have sex with a woman.

Other creators have criticized these videos. YouTuber Kurtis Conner spoke out about the trend in April, calling the pranks unfunny and weird.

“They put the wrong idea in people’s heads,” Conner said. “Putting a whoopee cushion on the couch — that’s one thing. But crushing up drugs, and putting them in a beverage, that’s fucking criminal. That’s super weird. It kind of just trivializes drugging women. It’s not a good thing to do! Probably one of the worst things you could do. Drugging anyone, but more so for women, because guys are gross monsters.”