Posted at 11:00 a.m.
In the summer of 2021, videos of the “headscarf challenge” reportedly began appearing in the TikTok feed of Lalani Erika Walton, an 8-year-old girl from Texas. This “challenge” consists of suffocating with a scarf until unconscious. And to post it all on TikTok, of course.
After returning from a 20-hour road trip, during which little Lalani allegedly watched videos of the headscarf challenge, her mother-in-law found her “hanging from her bed, a rope around her neck”, according to a lawsuit against TikTok filed this month in Los Angeles by law firm Social Media Victims Law Center.
PHOTO FROM GOFUNDME WEBSITE
Lalani Erika Walton
The lawsuit also recounts the tragic story of another girl, Arriani Jaileen Arroyo, 9, who suffocated on a dog’s leash in February 2021. She was, according to the lawsuit, “obsessed” with the Chinese social network application.
The headscarf challenge isn’t the only risky challenge launched by TikTok users in recent years. There was the “burning mirror challenge”, which Internet users took up by drawing on a mirror with a flammable liquid and setting it on fire (a 13-year-old American woman was seriously burned in 2021). There was also the boiling water challenge, which involves immersing your hand in very hot water. And the Benadryl challenge, which also resulted in the death of a teenage girl in 2020.
As a reasonable adult, these very risky behaviors seem insane. How to explain the attraction to certain young people?
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Emmanuelle Parent, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Center for Online Emotional Intelligence
Executive Director and co-founder of the Center for Online Emotional Intelligence, Emmanuelle Parent cites two reasons. There’s the lure of risk, per se, that existed in the schoolyard long before social media. In addition, she notes, in general, the challenges on TikTok connect young people to their community, give them a sense of belonging and the impression of participating in a movement larger than them.
“These two elements, together, can make a small explosive cocktail”, agrees the doctoral student and lecturer in communication at the University of Montreal.
Emmanuelle Parent nevertheless invites us to avoid generalizations. She remembers a workshop she gave in class during which the teacher discussed the issue of dangerous challenges on TikTok with her students. “There had been a kind of uprising,” she recalls. The young people said that we should not put them all in the same basket. »
What’s more, the vast majority of “challenges” thrown by the TikTok community are harmless. A dance choreography, a cheese Ramen recipe, a contest for the most beautiful sunset, a precise kick to open a bottle without dropping it…
As part of her work, Emmanuelle Parent spoke of many young TikTok users. Many don’t post at all, but those who do cite a variety of reasons, she says. Some mention liking the creative process preceding the production of the video. Others see it as a way to express themselves, to be seen, to be listened to.
“As an adult, we can look at these behaviors and say to ourselves that, in 10 years, he may be embarrassed by his dance, but it is important not to make young people feel that we find it strange to participate in these tendencies, because it’s typical of his time,” she says.
Open chat
However, when it comes to dangerous challenges, it’s a whole different story.
Professor in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education of the Faculty of Education at McGill University, Shaheen Shariff believes that all actors in society have a responsibility to prevent tragedies such as those which cost the lives of both American girls.
Social networks must do appropriate monitoring, warn users or outright remove videos showing dangerous behavior, says Shaheen Shariff. The school must also help to make children aware of the risks of following these “trends”. Finally, she says, parents should open the discussion with their children.
It’s hard to keep an eye on everything, but you have to at least talk to the children about the real risk of participating in these types of challenges.
Shaheen Shariff, Professor in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education, Faculty of Education, McGill University
Shaheen Shariff laments the time young people spend on social media when there is so much to do and learn in the outside world. For 20 years, she says, it has become a cultural way to socialize, but also to get attention.
“I really, really think that we should ensure that our children do not become heavy users of social networks and invite them to be more socially active, in real life”, she concludes.