Dangerous Online Challenges: What Families Need to Know

Some online challenges are harmless fun.

A dance trend, cooking challenge, charity fundraiser, or silly family competition can bring people together and give Kids a way to participate in something their friends are enjoying.

Then there are challenges where the risk is the point.

A stunt may involve holding your breath, misusing medication, inhaling a substance, exposing the body to extreme heat or cold, jumping from somewhere unsafe, or doing something increasingly reckless to get a reaction.

To an adult, the danger may seem obvious.

To a Kid watching twenty people successfully do it in short, entertaining videos, it can look very different.

The issue isn’t that Kids can’t understand danger. It’s that social rewards, peer approval, curiosity, and the way social media presents risky behavior can all affect how that danger feels in the moment.

A recent peer-reviewed review of research on risky social media challenges found documented injuries including burns, poisonings, lung injuries, and strangulation, with some published cases resulting in permanent harm or death. The researchers also emphasized that the evidence base is still developing, so families should avoid assuming every viral story they encounter is equally well documented.

Quick Take

Families don’t need to memorize the name of every viral challenge.

A better goal is teaching Kids how to recognize the ingredients of a dangerous one.

Pause when a challenge involves:

• intentionally restricting breathing
• taking or misusing medicine
• swallowing or inhaling substances not meant to be used that way
• fire, extreme heat, or extreme cold
• deliberately causing pain or injury
• dangerous heights, vehicles, or moving objects
• losing consciousness
• damaging property or putting another person at risk
• pressure to prove courage or earn approval
• instructions that discourage asking a Grown-Up first

The safest skill isn’t knowing which trend is popular today.

It’s learning to ask:

“What could actually happen if this goes wrong?”

Why Do Risky Challenges Appeal to Kids?

Adults sometimes look at a dangerous viral stunt and think:

“Who would ever believe that’s a good idea?”

But that’s not quite the right question.

Kids and adolescents are developing independence while becoming increasingly aware of what their peers think. Belonging matters. Being funny matters. Not looking scared matters. And getting attention from friends can make an activity feel more rewarding than it might when considered alone.

Research on adolescent decision-making has found that the presence or perceived observation of peers can increase risk-taking, even when young people have information about possible negative outcomes. That doesn’t mean every teenager automatically follows the crowd; it does help explain why knowing something is risky isn’t always enough to stop someone from trying it.

The American Academy of Pediatrics makes a similar point in its current guidance on dangerous social media challenges and their appeal to kids: curiosity, peer attention, social approval, and adolescent development can combine to make an extreme challenge more tempting than it appears to an adult.

Instead of reducing the issue to “Kids don’t think,” it is more useful to help them practice thinking through risk before the pressure arrives.

Not Every Challenge Is Dangerous

If Grown-Ups react to every internet trend as though it is a crisis, Kids may eventually stop listening when something genuinely dangerous appears.

A challenge can be positive, creative, funny, charitable, athletic, or educational.

The warning signs come from what the activity requires, not simply the fact that it went viral.

Ask:

• Could the activity cause an injury even when performed “correctly”?
• Does it involve a substance, medicine, fire, restricted breathing, or another obvious physical hazard?
• Does the challenge get more impressive as the risk increases?
• Are people being encouraged to ignore normal safety precautions?
• Would you be comfortable doing the same activity without a camera or audience?

That last question can be especially useful.

Sometimes the camera changes the decision.

A Video Doesn’t Show You Everything That Happened

Short-form video can make a dangerous stunt look remarkably simple.

You may see someone perform the activity, laugh, and walk away.

You don’t see what happened before the clip.

You may not see what happened afterward.

You may not know whether the video was edited, staged, repeated several times, or followed by an injury.

Social platforms are also designed around engagement. The AAP explains in its guidance on social media design and young people that highly engaging or extreme material can receive more interaction and therefore more visibility in recommendation systems.

For a Kid, repetition can create a false sense of normality.

After seeing the same challenge again and again, it can begin to feel less like:

“Someone did something dangerous.”

and more like:

“Everyone is doing this.”

Those aren’t the same thing.

Some Risks Are More Serious Than They Look

One reason online challenges deserve thoughtful conversations is that ordinary objects can become dangerous when they’re intentionally misused.

Medicine Is Still Medicine

A viral video doesn’t change how a drug affects the body.

In 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a specific warning after reports linked a social media challenge with teenagers taking excessive amounts of diphenhydramine, an over-the-counter antihistamine. The FDA warned that high doses can cause serious heart problems, seizures, coma, and death.

Parents can read the FDA’s full drug safety warning about misuse of diphenhydramine.

The larger lesson is more useful than memorizing the name of one old challenge:

A medicine does not become safe to experiment with because it is available without a prescription or because somebody used it in a video.

Keep medications stored appropriately, and make sure Kids know that the directions on the label are not suggestions.

Household Products Can Cause Real Injuries

Another challenge might involve aerosol products, cleaning supplies, concentrated food ingredients, very hot substances, or other ordinary items.

“It’s something we already have in the house” is not the same as “it’s safe to use in any way.”

Research on extreme online challenges has documented behaviors involving poisoning, breathing restriction, self-injury, and other potentially serious outcomes in children and adolescents.

A 2026 study of pediatric burn injuries related to social media challenges also documented children requiring medical treatment, including some with deep burns and skin grafting. The study was small and should not be treated as an estimate of how common these injuries are, but it demonstrates that viral stunts can translate into real clinical injuries.

Families don’t need to describe these injuries graphically to make the point.

The message can simply be:

“A video may last fifteen seconds. An injury can last much longer.”

Teach Kids to Run a Fast Risk Check

Telling Kids “don’t do stupid challenges” isn’t a very reusable strategy.

Give them something concrete instead.

Before participating in a viral challenge, ask them to run through four questions.

1. What Can Go Wrong?

Don’t only think about what usually happens.

Think about what could happen.

Could someone fall?

Could they stop breathing?

Could something burn them?

Could a medicine or chemical affect their body?

Could another person get hurt?

If a serious injury is one reasonable outcome, the number of successful videos doesn’t make the activity safe.

2. Why Do I Want to Do It?

Would I still want to try this if:

• nobody could record it?
• nobody would like it?
• my friends wouldn’t know?
• I couldn’t post it afterward?

If the answer suddenly changes, social pressure may be driving the decision.

3. Am I Being Pressured to Prove Something?

Phrases such as:

“Don’t be scared.”

“Everybody already did it.”

“You’re the only one who won’t.”

“Prove you can do it.”

aren’t evidence that an activity is safe.

They’re pressure.

Recognizing that pressure gives Kids a better chance of resisting it.

4. Would I Be Comfortable Asking a Trusted Grown-Up First?

A Kid doesn’t need adult permission for every harmless trend.

But when the challenge involves a physical hazard, substance, medicine, fire, breathing restriction, or significant chance of injury, asking first is a smart move.

Ask About Trends Before They Become a Problem

You don’t have to wait until your Kid tries something.

Ask children about challenges circulating among their friends or appearing in their feeds and let them explain what they’ve seen. That approach can reveal far more than beginning with an accusation.

Try:

“What’s the weirdest challenge you’ve seen lately?”

“Are kids at school actually doing that one, or is it mostly videos?”

“What do you think could go wrong?”

“Would you try it?”

“What would make you decide not to?”

These questions don’t sound like a lecture.

They invite Kids to practice evaluating risk.

And that is the skill you’ll need long after today’s trend disappears.

If Your Kid Already Tried Something Risky

Finding out afterward can be scary.

Your first job is safety—not delivering the perfect parenting speech.

If there may be an injury, poisoning, medication misuse, breathing problem, loss of consciousness, or other medical concern, get appropriate help.

In the United States, the federally supported Poison Help line connects callers with their local poison center at 1-800-222-1222, 24 hours a day. HRSA advises calling immediately when a possible poisoning has occurred rather than waiting for symptoms to appear.

You can find official guidance through Poison Help from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration.

If someone isn’t breathing, has collapsed, is having a seizure, cannot be awakened, or appears to be in immediate danger, call emergency services.

Once immediate safety is addressed, find out what happened.

Ask:

• “How did you hear about it?”
• “What made it seem safe?”
• “Were other people doing it with you?”
• “Did anyone pressure you?”
• “What do you know now that you didn’t know before?”

You may still need consequences.

But understanding the decision gives you something much more useful than punishment alone: a chance to reduce the odds of the same reasoning happening again.

Don’t Accidentally Advertise the Challenge

This is an easy mistake for adults to make.

A frightening challenge appears in the news, and we immediately send every Kid a warning with the challenge’s name, a screenshot, and a detailed explanation of what people are doing.

Sometimes that gives the trend a new audience.

When possible, focus on the type of risk rather than giving unnecessary instructions or repeatedly showing harmful content.

Instead of:

“Have you seen this exact challenge where people do X, Y, and Z?”

try:

“Have you been seeing videos where people are doing risky things with medicine?”

or:

“Are there challenges going around that involve hurting yourself or someone else?”

Kids need enough information to recognize danger.

They don’t need a tutorial.

Make It Easy to Walk Away

A Kid may know a challenge is unsafe and still worry about what their friends will say.

Give them language they can use without turning the moment into a speech.

For example:

“I’m good.”

“Not worth it.”

“I’m not getting hurt for a video.”

“You do you. I’m out.”

Some Kids may blame the Grown-Up:

“My mom would destroy me.”

That’s fine too.

The goal isn’t to make them deliver the perfect safety argument in front of their peers.

The goal is to give them an exit.

How Socialeyez Fits Into the Conversation

Socialeyez is built to support digital growth, not to assume that every unusual piece of content means a Kid is in danger.

While Protection is active, Socialeyez can use information visibly present on a Kid’s screen to help identify meaningful digital moments. Depending on the visible context, an interaction involving dangerous behavior may contribute to a Behavior Insight or, when the situation indicates serious risk, a Safety Alert.

There are important limits.

Socialeyez cannot automatically know whether a Kid actually performed a challenge simply because a video appeared on the screen. It cannot infer an off-screen action or intention that isn’t visibly supported.

That distinction is important.

Seeing risky content, joking about it, researching it for school, and actually participating in it are different situations.

Useful digital safety depends on context.

Build Judgment That Outlasts the Trend

There will always be another viral challenge.

Families can’t realistically keep a master list of everything Kids might encounter, and by the time one trend reaches the evening news, young people may already be talking about the next one.

A better long-term goal is helping Kids develop a reliable pause between:

“Everyone is doing this”

and

“I’m going to try it.”

Ask what could go wrong.

Look beyond the edited video.

Notice when social pressure is driving the decision.

Get another opinion when the stakes are high.

And remind your Kid that walking away from a dangerous challenge isn’t missing out.

Sometimes it’s simply a smart digital move.