Ryan Bridge: Online trends are taking lives

What happened in Palmerston North with the death of this young man was an absolute tragedy.

We don't know exactly what happened here, other than it was linked to another viral challenge. 

The sad reality is stuff like this will happen again. And again. And again. 

The campaigners and professionals will warn about the dangers. 

And then kids will be kids, and another craze will come along and somebody else will get hurt or worse.

Ten years ago… remember planking?

The came skin art, where young people paint sunscreen on some parts of their bodies and burn the rest in the sun. 

An American family lost their son to the infamous blackout challenge, where kids choke themselves or their friends for fun.

For ages teenagers, especially boys, have played bullrush, drank to excess, and driven cars way too fast.

Frontal lobes don’t develop properly until age 25. That’s when reason overtakes risk in the brain. Behaviour changes.

If you ask me honestly if society can ever prevent these tragedies from happening again, I’d say look at the numbers, the trends and social media algorithms.

But more than that, that overwhelming urge to, when you’re young, experiment with danger. To push the boundaries in life. To just goof off with your mates.

That primal urge has existed since the beginning of time and doesn’t appear to be going anywhere in a hurry. 

All we can do as individuals is offer our sincere condolences to this poor family and hope that others learn a lesson from his death. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What happened in Palmerston, North with this young man was
obviously an absolute tragedy. We don't know exactly what happened.
It was linked to another viral challenge. The sad reality
is stuff like this will happen again and again and again,
and the campaigners and the professionals will warn about the dangers,
and then kids will be kids, and another craze will
come along and somebody else will get hurt or die.

(00:23):
Ten years ago, remember the planking challenge.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Planking turned deadly for one twenty year old Australian man
as he fell to his death early Sunday morning trying
to plank on a thin balcony railing seven stories high.
This is the first known death as a result of planking,
but with its rising appeal, police are worried more serious
injuries will follow. The question is will this phenomenon catch
on big.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Here in the States. The next thing to come along
was skin art, where young people paint sunscreen on some
parts of their bodies and burn the rest in the sun.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
It only takes one bad sunburn before the age of
eighteen to double your risk of melanoma, and if you
have more than five sunburns, over your lifetime, you have
an eighty percent chance of getting a skin cancer.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
This American family lost their son to the infamous blackout challenge,
where kids choke themselves all their friends for fun. Our son, teens,
was fourteen years old and passed away due to one
of these social media challenges.

Speaker 4 (01:23):
Tent was a great kid. He had a lot going
for him, many friends, very popular. His friends have been
in sharp like everybody else in our family.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Since the beginning of time, teenagers, especially boys, have played bullrush,
drink to excess, driven cars way too fast. Frontal lobes
don't develop properly until the age of twenty five. That's
when reason overtakes risk in the brain and your behavior changes.
If you ask me honestly if society can ever prevent
these tragedies from happening again, I would say, look at

(01:57):
the numbers, look at the trends, and look at the
social media algorithms. Of course we can't. But more than that,
that overwhelming urge when you are young to experiment with danger,
to push the boundaries in life, to just goof off
with your mates. That urge has existed since the dawn
of time and doesn't appear to be going anywhere in

(02:19):
a hurry. All we can do, really is, individuals, is
offer our sincere condolences to this poor family and hope
that others will learn a lesson from his death. For
more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to
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