The children of Jackass have grown up and met some venture capitalists. Among the gazillion start-ups of Web 2.0 are a few specialising in online dares. Rich sadists can put up money and challenges. Poor idiots can get paid for doing stupid things.

DareJunkies : Stupid behaviour could earn you $10,000 at DareJunkies. It’s a flashy site founded by two reality-show producers with $500,000 from friends and family. The site issues challenges (devised by comedy writers). Users film them, and the winners share a $10,000 pot. It’s full of suspiciously well-edited clips showing out-of-work actor types doing harmless and/or sexy stunts. Last month’s big winner? A girl in a bikini, covered in peanut butter, being licked by dogs. UPDATE: Since the story was written, DareJunkies has gone on hiatus, pending a redesign. You can find a handful of their videos here on YouTube including a rather less glamorous version of the peanut butter stunt .

MonsterDare : A new British site attracting plenty of dares (but few videos) along the lines of "Drink a bottle of ketchup”. Users can suggest dares and stake money on them. The only completed dare I found was “Shout a swear word in a lecture theatre”, which netted £1 for MonsterDare founder Michael Oxley (seen above offering to remove his toe for cash).

Mob Incentive : The acceptable face of online dares. In theory, it’s a place where you can “Find projects that you’re passionate about”. In practice, you’ll find people putting up $50 to get their congressman custard-pied .

The dark side: Dares or no dares, the edgier corners of YouTube are still full of gruesome amateur stunts made by kids from San Diego to, well, Hemel Hempstead. Many Hemel videos (Warning: "Stunts & Half Naked Girls") are edited by a man called Evil Webby, who found fame on the circuit when he and a female friend were badly burnt while having a light sabre fight using fluorescent tubes filled with petrol.

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