A MUM has blamed a popular YouTube video after finding a makeshift noose around her seven-year-old son’s neck.
She said the youngster claimed to have been inspired by a clip starring a foul-mouthed puppet named Jeffy.
He was discovered after his younger brother came came downstairs to warn her what was happening
The mother, who did not wish to be named, then dashed upstairs to remove the noose that had been fashioned from Christmas decorations.
She said: “I asked him why he did it and he said he had got it from Jeffy.
“I’ve banned him from watching it and I’ve even hidden all the TV leads.
“Apparently Jeffy is the latest craze and all the kids at my son’s school love it but they are full of swearing.
“I think the videos are disgusting and they should be banned.”
Jeffy is a puppet star of a series of hit YouTube videos that have been watched tens of millions of times.
They show him as a foul-mouthed, ill-behaved teenager who torments his father, who is played by Super Mario.
In the episode which the mum believes inspired her son, Jeffy threatens to kill himself because his dad won’t buy him an iPad game.
It has been viewed over 12million times.
The incident has prompted the child’s local school to issue a warning to parents.
In a Facebook post – Whale Hill Primary in Middlesbrough, wrote: “It has recently come to our attention that some children are watching a show on YouTube called Jeffy.
“Whilst we are aware that YouTube has got many educational videos, the content of the Jeffy videos are inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18.”
The mum repeated the warning, adding: “I would just tell everyone to be extra careful.”
The videos are the work of Logan Thirtyacre, 23, from Florida, US.
He told The Sun: “I am truly sorry if my video inspired anyone to do anything similar.
“They are not to be imitated and are for entertainment purposes only.”
A YouTube spokesperson said: “Earlier this year, we updated our policies to make content featuring inappropriate use of family entertainment characters ineligible for monetization.
“We rolled out a new policy that age restricts this content in the YouTube main app when flagged.
“Age-restricted content is automatically not allowed in YouTube Kids.
“The YouTube team is made up of parents who are committed to improving our apps and getting this right.”
