Dubai: Just when you thought teenagers had stopped following dangerous online trends, a new one called the "skull-breaker challenge" has been making the rounds on social media.
And it's raising alarm bells everywhere.
The extremely dangerous challenge, also being called "tripping jump", involves three people standing side by side.
The person in the middle jumps while those on the sides kick the jumper’s legs just when he or she is about to land.
Serious head injuries
The goal is to make the person in the middle fall flat on his or her back, hence the name — "skull breaker challenge".
But this also bring about chances of serious head injuries.
The mad, social media-driven challenge is circulating on video-sharing social networking platform TikTok.
In the past, youngsters have participated in similar online trends that proved to be harmful such as the cinnamon challenge, tide Pod challenge and Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge.
Latest danger
A video of a boy in Venezuela suffering serious injuries due to participating in the challenge went viral. According to The Sun, the boy was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. The school the three who participated in the challenge belonged to said that action was taken against those involved.
Experts suggest that this challenge can cause serious injury to the participants such as fractures and ligament tears.
Social media response
Many on social media are sharing clips of the dangerous challenge and urging people, especially youngsters, to avoid partaking in it.
Social media user @SimmiAhuja_ shared one such video and asked people to warn their family members: “Warning: Skull breaker challenge is trending I urge you all to show your children and parents and teach them this is really dangerous. It can break skull and can cause some serious problem. #skullbreakerchallenge”
Another user, @adeelkau, had a similar message: “This #skullbreaker act is super appalling, can easily lead to [being] handicapped or fatality. It must be stopped! #TikTok #awareness”
TikTok responds
In a statement to Gulf News, a representative from TikTok said: "The safety and well-being of our users is a top priority at TikTok. As we make clear in our Community Guidelines, we do not allow content that encourages, promotes or glorifies dangerous challenges that might lead to injury. We will remove any such reported content."
