Pediatricians Warn of Rise of Dangerous Challenges on the Internet

Disseminated and expanded quickly through images, videos or games online and on different platforms, the so-called challenges promoted via the internet can endanger life, physical and psychological integrity and, in some cases, fatalities or irreversible damage to children and adolescents . The alert is from the Brazilian Society of Pediatrics (SBP). The proposal for dangerous challenges on networks, as the entity itself calls them, is to encourage the practice of risky and self-aggressive behavior, often under the false impression of being harmless or even joking. For pediatricians, as most of these challenges invite physical or psychological aggression, they should be considered violence and crime. SBP cites observational internet research conducted in the United States, France, and Brazil that has described more than 100 ways to name these challenges. The risk behavior patterns most frequently identified among adolescents are: practices of suffocation, asphyxiation or apnea; practices of self-harm or hetero-harm; and actions such as the use of magic pills with unknown content of white or colored powder, dinners with detergents as drinks and soap tablets as meals, swallowing chips and magnetic balls and dangerous selfies, among others. Among the entity’s recommendations to avoid fatalities among children and adolescents is updating the medical community, especially pediatricians, so that they can advise, during consultations, on risk prevention and online safety. “It is also essential to raise awareness about online risks for school educators, psychologists and mental health professionals who work with children and adolescents in different communities and circumstances”, evaluates the SBP. The entity also points out that parents are legally and morally responsible for the care of their children and that they need to be present in supervising their activities on digital networks, with clear rules in their daily coexistence about security, privacy, blocking of inappropriate, violent or discriminatory messages, that may cause physical or mental damage, and with guidance for not practicing challenges. “In a society where body strength and power are part of the culture, just as testing one’s own limits as a test of courage without measuring the consequences of danger reflects a peculiar attitude in adolescence, we need to be more alert in analyzing the ‘challenges dangerous’ and the consequences of ‘death games’.”

Agência Brasil