Dangerous TikTok Trends

Dangerous+TikTok+Trends

Gillian Borseth, Staff Writer

In the first week of November, user @maeve.is.swaggy.asf on TikTok was one of many who posted a viral video attempting a stunt trend. The background song that goes with this is an edited, speed-up version of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.” In this stunt, the main goal is to jump over your own leg. However, out of the 400,000 people that have used the sound and tried the trend, copious amounts have done it incorrectly and injured themselves.  

Marissa Valencia says, “I think that some people are very dumb, I think it’s an easy way to break your whole face.”  Sam Minauro adds, “If people aren’t athletic enough to do it, they shouldn’t, it’s common sense.”  

TikTok, previously known as Musical.ly, is one of the most downloaded apps globally, surpassing Instagram. With over one billion monthly active users, TikTok is now a household name, meaning everyone and their mom will see these trends and want to try them out. Although there are safety guidelines, this does not stop people from participating in reckless activity. Another alarming trend popped up recently called the “skull breaker challenge.” This consists of one person jumping and two others beside them kicking the person’s feet out from under them, leading them to fall. It may be funny, but can lead to significant injury. People have broken their arms and gotten concussions from this, even hitting their head on sharp objects, leading to injuries more severe than simple bruises. 

Even though it is a Chinese brand, TikTok in China has more than just safety guidelines. China has its own version of TikTok, Douyin, where the minimum age to use the app is 18, while for TikTok it’s 13. Restricting the access minors have to the app results in less exposure to harmful and dangerous content. Once you have a Douyin account, you are only allowed 40 minutes of app access a day between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m., and the content is highly filtered to only show videos that may be beneficial to the person.