Fire Challenge Is Latest Deadly Teen Trend

It is safe to say that at one point or another, every teenager is going to do something stupid that they know they should not be doing. It is inevitable. It is a time of exploring new found freedoms, and dealing with daily challenges, while growing and becoming the person you are supposed to be. However, sometimes teenagers engage in activities that are not only stupid, they are downright dangerous. That is the case with the latest, potentially deadly, teen trend, known as the fire challenge.

Generation Z, also known as the Internet Generation or the Facebook Generation is made up of individuals born in the early 1990s to the present. Generation Z has come under fire before, being called lazy and unaware. They are reportedly so fixated on social networks and video games, and are so glued to their cell phones that they are basically growing up missing the world around them; existing primarily in the virtual world of the internet. Whether that is the case or not is difficult to say, but a challenge going around the internet is not helping this generation’s case.

The latest teen trend, the fire challenge, has gone viral, and teens everywhere are trying it out. In the fire challenge, someone records as teens douse themselves in flammable liquids. Nail polish remover has been used in a number of the videos. In many videos the teens read the warning labels aloud about keeping the liquids they’re using away from fire. Once they are good and soaked in flammable liquids, they set themselves on fire. The aftermath, of the teens engulfed in flames, is then posted on social media sites such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, for all the world to see.

First and second degree burns are an immediate result of the fire challenge. The teens become swallowed up by flames, panic and run-without dousing the flames. Teens who have participated in the challenge and were severely hurt are speaking out, trying to tell people that it is not a game and not to do it. One teen from Kentucky who was badly burned from the challenge spoke out saying that the pain was “unbearable.” An 11 year old boy from Florida who was participating in the activity with his older brother had to be rushed to the area hospital and then transferred to the burn unit. He spoke to reporters and his message was “Don’t play the game. Some people die from it, and it hurts real bad.”

It is incredibly scary and shocking that this generation of kids will do practically anything, including risking their own lives, for a chance to get views on a social networking site. William Haynes, a fictional character, who regularly posts videos to his YouTube channel and seems to be an internet sensation, recently spoke out on the fire challenge. He offered up another challenge to his peers called the “I can read challenge.” You simply need to take a picture of yourself reading a book, and upload the picture to social media sites using the hashtag #Icanreadchallenge. While the challenge itself may be mocking those who are engaging in the fire challenge, people are actually doing it; and who knows, maybe the challenge will take off considering that Generation Z has shown us they will literally do just about anything by engaging in the latest deadly teen trend, the fire challenge.

By: Lauren DiDonato