Crazy YouTube challenges kids doing are hot water challenge, condom challenge, the tide pod challenge, eraser challenge, the deodrant challenge, dog food versus real food, bananas and sprite challenge, cinnamon challenge, salt and ice challenge, real food versus gummy food, eat it or wear it challenge and chubby bunny challenge.

Today, peer pressure is not just limited to drinking alcohol or shoplifting. In the age of social media, peer pressure can lead a child to do so many things, some of them being very harmful. The risk of a child doing silly or harmful dares doesn’t end with saying “Bloody Mary” thrice in front of a bathroom mirror anymore. In today’s age, social media dominates. The fear of missing out is so much more in kids these days.

Any child with access to the internet is exposed to the fad of challenges that permeate YouTube and other social media. These challenges done by YouTube kids can be anywhere from silly and harmless, to potentially deadly and fatal. Children are often unaware of the risks and might try anything that they see on the internet as a way to fit in or be cool. Parents must always be aware of what the new YouTube challenges are and try to make sure that their kids do not try to attempt such challenges.  Here are 15 crazy challenges that kids are doing on the internet right now-

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15 Crazy and Dangerous YouTube Challenges Kids Are Doing

Hot Water Challenge

This deadly YouTube challenge involves trying to drink boiling hot water through a straw or throwing boiling water unexpectedly on a friend.  A teenager from Indiana made headlines when his friends threw hot water on him, resulting in deep second degree burns. This challenge is obviously very, very harmful and could even be deadly. It should never be attempted. This challenge started more than a year ago, and has still stuck around despite there being several instances of teenagers being heavily injured.

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Condom Challenge

This challenge involves kids and teenagers snorting an unused condom with the intention to pull it out from their mouth. Not only is this challenge disgusting, but it also comes with the risks of allergic reactions, choking, infections and even pneumonia if the rubber is ingested. This challenge lead to serious injuries, one of these being a woman who had to undergo surgery after the condom was lodged in her appendix. This is apparently a very old YouTube challenge, and videos of this can be found on YouTube and Instagram.

The Tide Pod Challenge

The Tide Pod Challenge is very recent compared to the other YouTube challenges on this list, but it also one of the most harmful and dangerous challenges. This challenge includes kids posting videos of themselves biting into tide pods and chewing. The point is to see who will go as far as possible before spitting it out. Accidentally ingesting the detergent can lead to cases of eye burns, poisoning, throat burns, vomiting or even death. More than forty teenagers have been admitted to hospitals in the United States because of this challenge.

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The Deodorant Challenge

This challenge was previously called “frosting” and now it’s coming back to the internet. It involves kids holding aerosol deodorant as close to their skin as possible and spraying as long as they can. Obviously, this YouTube challenge is extremely harmful as it can lead to first degree and second degree burns, leaving children with spots all over their skin.

Eraser Challenge

This is a painful challenge that involves kids taking an eraser and rubbing it on their skin as hard as possible for thirty seconds. This YouTube challenge often results in red, chafed skin or a painful welt that could develop into a scar.

Dog food versus real food

This challenge has been going around on YouTube. It involves dishes of real food as well as dog food being covered by cloth and the kid must choose any one. Whichever they choose, they must eat. This YouTube challenge usually has several rounds and somebody ends up consuming dog food which could be bad for their health.

Banana and Sprite Challenge

This YouTube challenge involves a group of kids who will eat two bananas followed by an entire litre of the soft drink Sprite. The challenge is to do this without throwing up. This food and drink combination does not mix well and often results in the child throwing up and vomiting, which is obviously not good for their health.

Cinnamon Challenge

This challenge involves recording yourself while consuming a teaspoon of cinnamon. Doing this is very dangerous as it can lead to coughing, choking, burning eyes and other such results.  The cinnamon challenge poses many health risks. It has been the cause of many kids going to the emergency room and calling up poison centres.

Salt and Ice Challenge

In this harmful YouTube challenge, kids often pour a pinch of salt on their skin and then rub an ice cube on the area as fast as possible. The mixture of salt and ice creates a eutectic frigorific mixture which can reach temperatures upto minus 18 degree celcius, making it much colder than ice alone. This challenge can cause second and third degree burns, or frostbites. It can lead to painful open sores forming on the skin. Because of the numbing sensation of the cold, there can be a possibility of nerve damage and kids won’t realize the extent of their injuries until after the challenge. Skin discoloration may also be observed.

Real food versus gummy food

This seemingly innocent challenge involves having two plates of the same food – one is real and the other contains gummy candy. On the face of it, this seems harmless enough but there is a fear factor version of this game which involves snakes, and worms.

Eat It or Wear It Challenge

Eat It or Wear It is a very old and popular challenge on social media. There are many variations of this YouTube challenge, but the most common one is when kids have covered food items. The must pick whether they want to try eating it or having it dumped on their head. Often these items are egg whites, squid, and other icky things. This challenge usually isn’t very harmful, but is disgusting and causes a mess. In some cases, the food item can be unsavoury and cause stomach problems when eaten.

Chubby Bunny Challenge

Dating back to the days of campfires, this particular challenge has made its way onto social media. To do this challenge, a kid must stuff as many marshmallows as possible into his or her mouth before saying the words “chubby bunny” without letting even one marshmallow fall out. This challenge is obviously a big choking hazard and has been the cause of many people being taken to the hospital.

The Hell Challenge

The Hell Challenge is gaining momentum again in the recent years. In this challenge, kids try to provoke their parents and get a rise out of them by asking them if hell is a curse word. They casually keep saying the word in normal sentences until their parent gets angry. All of this is recorded. While this challenge isn’t physically harmful to the child, it is still in bad taste and is not a very nice thing to do. It encourages cursing.

Hot Pepper Challenge

As the name suggests, in this YouTube challenge kids have to eat a super hot pepper, like a ghost pepper and record themselves sputtering and trying to drink milk or water to stop the burn. While a lot of people get through this challenge unscathed, it could be a cause of concern for younger kids who might risk heartburn or burning of the eyes. There have been incidents of kids landing up at the hospital because of this challenge.

Kylie Lip Challenge

In order to replicate Kylie Jenner’s lips, this YouTube challenge had kids using a shot glass. They would place it over their mouth and suck their breath in, making their lips swell artificially. This challenge can cause a lot of damage to the sensitive mouth area, but along with physical harm, it also promotes impossible beauty standards and can be a cause of body insecurities among kids and teenagers.

As parents, it is important to know what your child is looking at on the internet, at least until a certain age, and to have healthy conversations about peer pressure and the FOMO (fear of missing out) that a child goes through. Parents are the ones who have to explain to their children that doing harmful or fatal challenges is not a way to appear cool among peers or gain popularity. Health and safety is in a child’s own hands.

Sources

https://www.todaysparent.com/family/crazy-YouTube-challenges-kids-are-doing/#gallery/YouTube-challenges-kids-are-doing-these-days/0