L A R I V S R DAN Peer pressure
The Blue Whale Game
WORDS BY NIA DALTON PHOTOS: GETTY AND ALAMY
of cinnamon, tasting How can we spoonfuls hot chilli peppers and following self-harm tasks. protect our With reports of children cutting, choking and kids from chemically burning themselves, parents have dangerous reason to worry. Jen Harrison, Parent and online trends? Child Anxiety Coach, discusses
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t’s an age-old tale: we see people doing something exciting and new and we want to try it, too. Before the digital age, it might have been stuffing marshmallows into your mouth and struggling to say, ‘chubby bunny’, but now it’s chucking a full bucket of boiling hot water over your head on camera. New trends are forever emerging, and quickly proliferate among social media online. Children are copying daring, crazy and sometimes life-threatening stunts, with fear of missing out on the most recent craze. From inoffensive to
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childhood pressures; ‘Children feel pressured to take part in online challenge trends because they want to be in with the crowd and popular with their friends.’ ‘Unfortunately, at times, children will do things tha they don’t actually wa
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approval,’ Jen says. ‘Children feel like they’re missing out on something if they don’t take part. It all boils down to their fears of friends not liking them.’ With worries about not fitting in, many youngsters are watching popular, viral challenge videos on YouTube, and then trying to imitate them at home. Some of these challenges are simple and innocent, such as the Mannequin Challenge, which involves a group of
The Mannequin Challenge has been adopted by families across the world, including celebrities Michelle Obama, Adele and James Cordon. Some internet phenomena intends to be harmless, but they can get out of hand. The Planking Challenge involved people taking photos of themselves planking in unusual, extreme locations. In 2011, the challenge claimed a victim when 20-year-old Acton Beale of
Some are harmlesss
