By SUSAN ADELMAN, MD
We all have heard that Tik Tok should be banned, but usually for political reasons. Few in the medical community realize the medical and public health dangers that kids are exposed to when they go on this platform. Along with alluring dance routines are enticing challenges to do completely ridiculous, unbelievably dangerous pranks—dangerous to the self and to others. Does anyone older than a teenager know what these challenges are? Let us go through some of them.
One is so dangerous and has caused so many deaths that Tik Tok has put up a warning message on their platform – the Blackout Challenge. In this one, the child holds his breath, then a companion presses him against a wall until he passes out. The purpose is to attain a brief state of euphoria. Next, there is the Challenge to Tape the Mouth shut during sleep, supposedly because sleeping with the mouth open is hazardous. This can result in the child becoming hypoxic, even to the point of a cardiac arrest.
In the Skull Breaker Challenge, three people stand in a row, facing the camera. The two on the outside convince the one in the middle to jump, but when he does, they sweep his feet forward. He then falls backward on his skull, with results that we all can imagine. Another lethal one is the Cha-Cha Challenge, in which a driver drives his car to the rhythm of a song, recklessly veering left and right according to directions given in the song. As brilliant as that one is the Outlet Challenge, in which the participant inserts a charger partially into an electric outlet and then touches the exposed metal. Obviously, this will give him an electric shock, which already has resulted in severe burns and even house fires.
While we are on the subject of fire, there is the Fire Challenge, in which the child applies alcohol or gas on some part of his body and sets it on fire, intending to extinguish the fire rapidly. Several children have been severely burned, some even dying. Similar is the Aerosol Challenge in which the child sprays highly flammable aerosol spray paint into a lighter, making a home-made flame thrower. This too has caused severe burns, fires and explosions, sending one 13-year-old into the hospital with 80% burns.
Want more? What about the BORG challenge? In this one, the Blackout Rage Gallon, the subject mixes a half-gallon water with a half-gallon vodka, hydration packets, maybe caffeine, maybe Pedialyte, and drinks it, believing that it will be safe because the alcohol is diluted. This, not surprisingly, has caused alcohol poisoning. Similar is the 30-Day Water Challenge, in which the participants drink a gallon of water daily for 30 days, while committing to drink no other beverages. Water intoxication anyone?
What else? How about the Benadryl Challenge in which the participant takes large amounts of Benadryl at a time? One 13-year-old died. What about Dry Scooping, in which the youth scoops up dry pre-workout powder, ingests it without water and proceeds with a workout. One scoop may equal three cups of coffee; this caper can cause hypertension or a lethal cardiac event. Several more challenges are listed in the article 12 dangerous TikTok challenges trending (myhighplains.com), but let us wind up with the Beezin Challenge, in which the young person rubs Burt’s Bees lip balm into his eyelids, believing that the menthol and peppermint will make him more alert when he goes out partying. This can cause inflammation of the eyes and potential loss of vision.
Since we know all this, now what? First, doctors should warn pediatric and young adult patients and their parents to never, NEVER, take up TikTok challenges. Second, we all should raise our voices to demand that TikTok be outlawed in the U.S., no matter how much the rich influencers on the platform may object.
My mother used to tell me the story of the parent who, when she left for work, told her kids not to put beans in their noses. Predictably, when she returned, they were all crying with beans up their noses. No child would think of doing these incredibly stupid TikTok tricks on his or her own, but, with prodding from a malign website, many will die because they took up a tempting challenge. Our challenge must be to eliminate this provocative, lethal site.