Remember the Ice Bucket Challenge of 2014?

You know, that one where you’d pour a bucket of freezing water over your head to raise awareness for the ALS Association?

It was good fun, right?

Well, for every harmless or well-intentioned challenge, there are darker social media challenges, too.

What’s more, with how prominent the internet is, it’s easy for your children or teens to get caught up in these challenges.

Remember: While challenges driven by peer pressure have existed amongst teens since the beginning of time, social media has amplified the appeal of many recent trends. Some seek to outperform each other in often dangerous ways.

So what can we do about it?
Like most ventures in life, the first thing is research, research, research.

Therefore, today, we explore five dangerous social media challenges happening right now that you need to know about.

5 Dangerous Internet Challenges You Need To Know About

1. The Choking Game

The first is the choking game, one of the more long-standing games in this list — and it’s a nasty one.

Your children are cutting off oxygen to their brain.

Want to know another name for this one? It’s the good kids high. Because that’s exactly what it does. Belief is, it gives children and teens a sense of euphoria.

But it’s also killing them.

The American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has attributed 82 deaths to this challenge between the years 1995-2007.

Years before social media was prominent.
When the game would have been spread by word of mouth and played between friends and in person.
Now, teens are increasingly playing alone without supervision.

In fact, you can find a recent version of the internet challenge on TikTok, where users even coach others on how to pass out.

How messed up is that?!?!
So what should you do about it?
The CDC recommends looking out for the following signs in your teen:

Bloodshot eyes
Severe headaches
Disorientation
Marks on your teen’s neck

You should also keep your eyes out for items that your teens could use for strangulation, including:

Ropes
Scarves
Belts

If you suspect your child has been partaking in The Choking Game, you should intervene immediately. It could save your child.

2. The Benadryl Challenge

This one’s emerged more recently. Please Listen closely.

Spread via the social media platform TikTok in 2020, children film themselves taking large Benadryl doses to induce hallucinations.

Like The Choking Game, it’s a fatal one. Unfortunately, Chloe Marie Phillips from Oklahoma found that out the hard way.

The U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a safety warning to parents in warning parents and teens that taking higher than recommended amounts of Benadryl can lead to serious heart problems, seizures, coma and even death.

They also urged TikTok to remove any videos showing The Benadryl Challenge.

Thankfully, Tiktok has complied. The challenge goes against TikTok’s community guidelines, which states:

“We define risky activities or other dangerous behavior as acts conducted in a non-professional context or without the necessary skills and safety precautions that may lead to serious injury or death for the user or the public. We do not allow content that depicts, promotes, normalizes, or glorifies such behavior, including amateur stunts or dangerous challenges."

Yet TikTok is a vast social media website, and they can’t catch everything.

Therefore, the FDA recommends parents and caregivers should keep Benadryl and other over-the-counter (OTC) medicines safely out of children's reach and sight, preferably in a locked cabinet.

3. The Blue Whale Challenge

Be warned. This challenge is scary.

A Russian girl uploaded a photo of herself on social media one day. In it, she had a black scarf wrapped around her mouth and nose.

She captioned the photo by saying: “Nya Bye.”

Then she killed herself the following day.

The interesting part is, Daria Radchenko, a researcher at the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, said, "Nobody actually knew the true story behind her suicide,"

Yet shortly after that, more and more of these suicide stories started emerging. All in Russia.

It turns out it was a social media challenge.

One that encourages teenagers to partake in 50 challenges set over 50 days.

At first, the challengers were fun, simple:

“Get up at 4:30.” “Watch a horror film.”

Yet as time went on, the challenges began to get more dangerous — then the last challenge was the worst.

“Kill yourself.”

It turns out the ‘administrators’ — or should we say those who were setting the challenges — were teens themselves, many between 12-14. Scary!!

We don’t know if this one is still happening or not, but it’s hard to know for sure with the online world ever-growing. So, if your teen starts acting out — doing stuff, he or she wouldn’t usually do — it’s time to start asking questions.

4. The Cinnamon Challenge

Another social media trend spread on TikTok. This one, you’ve probably heard of.

Kids swallow a tablespoon of ground cinnamon powder in 60 seconds without liquid. Participants then upload a video of the effects on social media.

Cinnamon coats the mouth and throat, inducing a gagging reflex.

In most cases, the user harmlessly expels the spice, and everyone laughs.

So what’s dangerous about it?

There’s a chance, however slim, you might not expel the spice. In fact, the cinnamon can enter your airway, resulting in a collapsed lung, pneumonia or worse.

This one might sound like fear-mongering, but in fact, that’s exactly what happened to Dejah Reed.

Following her attempt at the challenge, she was hospitalised.

The worst part about this one is that the challenge is widely accepted. Today, between 40,000 and 209,000 videos exist of the challenge online, despite social media platforms’ efforts to remove them.

While this challenge isn’t fatal like the Blue Whale Challenge, you should be careful of what your teenagers are taking into their body. Keep the cinnamon on the salt rack.

The Salt and Ice Challenge

This is one of the more obscure acts of self-harm disguised as a challenge. The game quite simply encourages the participant to place salt and ice over their skin.

Sounds harmless, right?

We’re afraid not. The resulting chemical reaction dramatically reduces the ice’s temperature down to levels as low as -17°c.

In other words, your teens are giving themselves frostbite. But the worst part? The participant then must try to withstand the intense burning sensation for as long as they can.

Not surprisingly, this causes catastrophic skin and nerve damage. Many participants suffer second or third-degree burns.

In fact, a schoolboy in Swansea tried this challenge, and doctors even considered giving him a skin graft.

It’s funny until someone gets hurt, right? No.

“Many Social Media Challenges Are Dangerous. Stop Them Today.”

We get it. Teens want to fit in But couple that with peer pressure and social media publicity, and it’s really easy for a teen to become susceptible to these dangerous social media challenges.

There are many, many risks involved in partaking in them, and it’s a problem.

The scary part is - we only covered a few challenges today, but there are many more dangerous risks on the web just waiting to be discovered, such as the fire challenge, the lip challenge, the momo challenge, the car surfing challenge, the mannequin challenge, and more.

Yes, the ALS Ice bucket challenge is harmless. Many other challenges are too. In fact, it’s a given:

Internet challenges will always be around.

But like everything else in life, you must be aware of the dangers of them, and the worst kinds. Therefore, if you suspect your children or teenagers are partaking in any challenge whatsoever, don’t wait for proof.

Start the conversation with your kids today. It could save a life.

Start Your Safer Digital Life Now

immunizeNet cares about your children and your entire family developing and maintaining a safer and healthier digital life. Whether it be on Facebook, Instagram, or even YouTube.

Any website or mobile phone app that puts children and families at risk, we’re here to let you know about it.

So with that, take a look at 3 safe(r) messaging apps for kids. Or contact us today to learn about our remote workshops.

5 Dangerous Social Media Challenges Happening Right Now