Viral challenges on TikTok present a particular challenge to parents both in terms of awareness and understanding why (or even believing!) your child might participate. Peer pressure and the desire to achieve some form of affirmation or recognition on social media can lead to some surprisingly daft – and dangerous – behaviours from even well-adjusted children.
From eating detergent pods to passing out from breath-holding while doing the ‘Blackout Challenge’ or climbing stacks of crates and falling, these dangers are spread by algorithms creating viral exposure and amplifying the peer pressure felt by immature and impressionable young people.
In the US, a challenge has been trending recently involving children filming themselves cooking chicken in NyQuil which is a Cold and Flu medicine. Whether or not they go on to eat the results of this gourmet recipe there is an immediate risk from the vapours created by heating the mixture. It is not the first-time medicines have featured in these challenges, there is another where participants film themselves consuming large doses of antihistamines and the resulting hallucinations.
As a parent, the trick is to find a way to speak to your child about these challenges before they happen and perhaps to accept that no child is immune from making a bad choice.