EP 12 Dangerous Internet Challenges – Understanding Their Appeal to Kids

Internet challenges can be fascinating to teens, who can be both impulsive and drawn to behavior that gets attention – especially in social media.

Some  social media challenges, like the ALS ice bucket challenge or the  mannequin challenge, can be fun and positive activities. But other  challenges that pop up on the internet are dangerous and can lead to  permanent harm.

You may have heard of social media trends like the Tide pod challenge, the choking game or "blackout" challenge, the cinnamon challenge or the salt and ice  challenge. Then there's the Benadryl challenge and another that involves  cooking chicken in NyQuil (the Sleepy Chicken challenge), which  prompted the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to warn against the dangers of medicine misuse.