Dylanrockin

I believe the furthest it could get would be "idolization," rather than being friends. Much like how some of us (and many that came before us) had idols as we grew up, whether it be a pop singer or an action star. I'm personally not the one to indulge into idolization, but seeing how most people (going by people around me + news coverage) aren't reported to have gotten themselves into the wrong path because of idolization, I don't think it's particularly dangerous to do so.

Honestly, considering how the line between Youtubers and the viewers are only ever so slightly thinner than stars outside Youtube and their respective audiences, I believe that experiences with the two are very much alike. I haven't seen people considering their idols as friends, so I would expect people not to consider Youtubers as friends, too, though I would appreciate a counterexample of someone that has considered a Youtuber as their friend, with the one-sided intimacy that one would expect from a relationship of unequal powers (Perhaps the case that had made you ask the question?).

Pmuch what Seal said, it depends on how genuine they are. Some of the people I watch are just being themselves while doing something they enjoy on camera, and those people are often very interactive with their audience.

None of them can gain my friendship, as I very narrowly define it, but I can see why others feel a more intimate relationship with them. And to be honest, I feel in many cases it's not one-sided. The YouTuber may not be aware of each individual, but I can see them developing a sense of intimacy and affection towards the concept of an individual fan. Just look at the level of trust displayed at meetups they do at conventions compared to more typical celebrity meetups.

As for danger, I'd say yes. Because developing a sense of mutual trust and intimacy without actually knowing someone sounds like it could lead to all sorts of messy.

One way that I feel it'd be easier to look at this situation would be from a personal vlogging/live streaming aspect of it, where you see the person's face quite a bit, and there's a lot of interaction. Some have a camera on and some don't, but a huge majority do. One unhealthy way of thinking about it from a streaming perspective is when some impressionable viewer reads the description of stream and the streamer says something along the lines of "donate x amount of dollars for me to notice you". Some viewers really do, genuinely, care about their favorite streamer or vlogger and tends to take upon them, what IntSys said, a sort of "celebrity/idol worshipping" stance on the matter. They believe their streamer is their friend when it comes to that (this mostly applies to significantly younger audiences, as I'm sure most adults would definitely not let themselves be manipulated so easily like that.)

In that situation I put above, it's a matter of the viewer thinking that their "idol" cares about them when they show a genuine reaction to their donation and praise them, and in some vain scenario where the viewer meets them irl and realizes their idol doesn't know who they are, then... well, I don't need to tell you the rest there.

But, that's just a very specific scenario, and I'm sure some other people have counterexamples to that and probably better organized than my scatterbrained...ness.