No, TikTok challenges aren't to blame for your kids doing dumb stuff — and most terrifying ones are probably fake anyway
- An alleged "boat jumping challenge" attributed to TikTok turned out not to exist on the platform.
- It's not the first time panic-inducing challenges have been attributed to the platform without evidence.
If you're a parent panicking about the latest dangerous TikTok trend that you saw in a local news story — breathe. Take a minute. And feel confident that there's a decent chance that the trend you're worried about your teen doing is fake.
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that an alleged "boat jumping challenge" featured on the Today Show and subsequent media outlets wasn't actual real. Per the Post's reporting, reports about the challenge stemmed from a claim that an Alabama resident made during a local news segment on boating safety (he later walked it back).
Here's the thing: this is far from the first time that this has happened. In recent years, TikTok has become the scapegoat for a litany of ridiculous trends, without evidence that they originated or were trending on the platform. That's led to TikTok blocking searches around things like the "blackout challenge," or having to issue denials that an alleged craze — like a magnet-swallowing challenge — ever existed on its platform at all.
In one case, the Food and Drug Administration was forced to issue a warning to not cook chicken in NyQuil (yes, really) in response to an unfounded TikTok challenge, which only served to further publicize it.
Alleged trends like the "blackout challenge" have been attributed to social media platforms for years. For what it's worth, asphyxiation challenges and choking dares predate social media altogether, according to one 2008 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study.
The churn of outsized reports on trends that don't actually appear to exist on TikTok has led to a kind of moral panic over the years over the app's impact on children. In 2021, misinformation researcher Abbie Richards told Insider that the fact that many adults don't understand TikTok makes it "a great boogeyman."
If you're worried about your child being exposed to harmful challenges on TikTok, you should open a dialogue with them — but also, know that some of the most egregious trends you hear about may not have very much substance at all.