The Deadly Truth About Social Media for Kids

Let’s invent platforms where people can get together and talk, keep up to date on news, and share personal aspects of their lives, all from the comfort of their own homes. What could go wrong? In theory, social media was a good idea. It allows people to better keep track of friends and family and share as much – or as little – of their lives as they like. But there’s a responsibility that comes with using the service, and unfortunately, young kids just don’t seem to understand. One of the negative side effects is the rise in deadly challenges and trends that have today’s youth lining up to risk their health and lives, all in the name of fitting in.

Rise in Mental Health Issues

“Up to 95% of youth ages 13–17 report using a social media platform, with more than a third saying they use social media ‘almost constantly,’” according to the National Library of Medicine. “Although age 13 is commonly the required minimum age used by social media platforms in the U.S., nearly 40% of children ages 8–12 use social media.”

Psychiatry Online reported that after the introduction of smartphones in 2010, there was a 50% spike in teen suicides in the US. Biophysicist William Softky testified in two Senate hearings about the dangers of social media and wrote about it in Fair Observer. “Over the whole US population, an extra 15,000 suicides per year (approximately one-third) are caused in aggregate by smartphones and social media,” he wrote.

Dangerous Social Media Challenges

And if that weren’t bad enough, kids are also daring each other to follow crazy trends and take on dangerous challenges. Who could forget the Tide Pod challenge that had young people recklessly eating those laundry detergent pods? At least two teens died during that trend, but researchers say the deaths may have been underreported.

Loneliness, depression, and the power of peer pressure are all forces that drive children and teens to engage in social media trends. Many follow popular influencers, hoping to gain recognition and popularity. “Social media challenges can be fascinating to teens, who can be both impulsive and drawn to behavior that gets attention,” explains HealthyChildren.org. “Teens’ brains are still developing. The part of the brain that handles rational thought, the prefrontal cortex, is not fully developed until the mid-20s. This means teens are naturally more impulsive and likely to act before thinking through all of the ramifications.”

A 2022 Pew Research found that 57% of TikTokers between the ages of 13 and 17 use the app daily. TikTok is full of challenges posted by users. Some are cute and harmless – like recreating a baby picture to the tune of a popular song. But many are extremely dangerous – like The Blackout Challenge, which has participants choking themselves until they pass out. At least five children 14 years old and younger have reportedly died doing this challenge.

One of the more sickening recent trends is called The Game, or Blue Whale Challenge, which has kids performing different tasks over 50 days. The deeds get more difficult as time goes on and include things such as carving a whale into their arms. The final task, for those who can make it that far, is suicide. In fact, the only way to “win” the game is to kill oneself.

The Firetruck Challenge is another worrisome trend. A boy places his hand on a girl’s lower thigh, calling it a fire truck. The girl says “green light,” giving the boy permission to move his hand further up her leg, and then “red light” when he is supposed to stop. However, when the girl says “red light,” she is told that firetrucks don’t stop at red lights, and the boys are instructed to keep moving their hands.

In 2021, a National Rape Day trend started. TikTok users told their followers that on April 24, rape would be legalized for just that day. That trend still shows up in April each year.

“Social media rewards outrageous behavior, and the more outrageous, the bigger the bragging rights,” HealthyChildren.org explained. “It’s a quick moving, impulsive environment, and the fear of losing out is real for teens. That environment plays into a teen’s underdeveloped ability to think through their actions and possible consequences.”

Titania Jordan, CMO and chief parent officer at Bark Technologies, a parental control app, told Fox News Digital: "There's a new trend every day. … You go to the FYP, the For You Page, you see what's trending. And then pretty soon, you'll see content created by children, which is in and of itself problematic. A lot of the children under the age of 13 … are legally not allowed to even be on social media."

This year, the Door Kick Challenge is in full swing. Participants kick someone’s door, usually late at night, and sometimes to Kesha’s song “Die Young." Although this particular trend has been going on for years, it’s gaining attention again. Like the pre-internet trend of mailbox bashing, this causes property damage that homeowners must either fix or pay someone else to fix. But property damage is just the beginning. Like so many social media challenges and internet trends, this puts the lives of its practitioners in danger of going to jail or even being shot. How is a homeowner to know if the person kicking in their door in the middle of the night is some bored teen making a TikTok video or a home invader intent on robbing or killing them?