My take on Practical jokes is they can sometimes be very funny indeed , but all to often its an excuse for some people to carry out spiteful acts .
I’m reminded of this Jack Handy quote:
“One thing kids like is to be tricked. For instance, I was going to take my little nephew to Disneyland, but instead I drove him to an old burned-out warehouse. “Oh, no,” I said. “Disneyland burned down.” He cried and cried, but I think that deep down, he thought it was a pretty good joke. I started to drive over to the real Disneyland, but it was getting pretty late.”
When my daughter was 5? whatever age kids start feeling they are too big to be babied, we were at the mall. On the way to the car I reached for her hand. She felt it was unnecessary. I took her hand anyway, and she said, “Stranger Danger”. I dropped her hand and glanced around. People were looking. I eventually laughed…
That’s what I mean about the disparity in experience. If she had the knowledge of an adult, she’d yell “Rape!” and look around desperately. That would have gotten a bigger impact. Children don’t really have the tools to make a prank a fair game.
Because their parents deliver the line seriously. “All your candy is gone” is entirely plausible.
Besides, it doesn’t matter why. Clearly they did believe it. That’s why they’re upset.
I think it could be cruel or damaging to kids, but it could also do nothing other than prove what kind of kid you have been raising.
A kid that is materialistic (spoiled), could go ape shit being told their candy is gone.
A kid who has trust issues from the beginning from just bad parenting, could just be further damaged from the prank.
A kid who was brought up to be accepting and forgiving would not be effected very much or at all.
It the video you can see each of these examples. So to me its more like a parenting test than a prank. IMHO