Madonna King: If you were a kid in 2025, would you survive?

We all did stupid things growing up, but in the new world would you have survived as a child?

Sunday Mail columnist Madonna King. Picture David Clark

Most of us did stupid things as teens; and if we didn’t sneak out the bedroom window, smoke behind the back shed, or wag school, we might have married someone who did.

But pubescent pursuits in 2025 - stirred up and cheered on by social media - have become so high risk, they are now endangering the lives of our children, some while still in primary school.

Have you heard of the blackout or choking challenge on social media? It’s where children are encouraged to strangle themselves, and then upload the videos of what unfolds on TikTok.

It’s one of hundreds of challenges that can amass more than 500 million views; a pervasive influence on tweens and teens looking for kudos, or adventure.

What about the call to jam something into a computer socket to try create sparks? Or ignite hair spray on a mirror? What about filing down your own teeth, or taking antihistamines and posting the hallucinations that follow online? Or eating laundry detergent? Or nutmeg mixed with water?

NRL fans at Brookvale Oval participating in an impromptu run it straight challenge.

From using beer as a sunscreen to extreme dieting, to supporting national ‘rape’ days, the influence of some of these online challenges are shaping the worlds of our teens.

The ‘run it straight challenge’, where two teens run at each other so fast and hard that only one remains standing, has led to a loss of life, as have many others.

The ‘skull breaker’ challenge requires three participants stand in a row and the middle one is tricked into jumping. The other two - who are in on the prank - kick out their legs, causing the jumper to fall. The milk crate challenge provides online kudos to the person who can climb a stairway made of milk crates.

Feeling hungry? Apparently you can take on the challenge of cooking chicken marinated in cough syrup, or swallowing food so hot that teens have died.

These challenges, influencing risky behaviour in our children, keep changing. And the target age for participants is growing younger.

Smart phones are dangerous. We know that. But we also need to start talking about the influence, or the influencers, hiding behind the screens.

The influence of Instagram and TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube is almost immeasurable, as is the current power of some of the ‘influencers’ who are spreading disinformation in a bid to build their own brands.

Influencer Andrew Tate. Picture: AFP

Young men are joining a manosphere - an online community driven by misogyny - because of influencers with millions of followers, like Andrew Tate, sprout lies.

Likewise, some tradwife influencers (short for traditional wives) are competing with each other to embed a new 1950s gender prism built on inequality and sexism. Is that what your 12-year-old should read?

An influencer is simply someone who regularly posts content, usually about something specific to the world’s social media users, who now number more than five billion.

Some of those spread healthy messages. Chris Hemsworth, for example, has 60 million followers. Others focus on recipes, photography and travel.

But increasingly, ‘influencers’, are just out of their teens, with millions of followers who tune in to the products they push (and are being paid to advertise) and the tips (often harmful or just plain stupid) that promise our children a world better than the one at home.

Sunscreen causes acne! Grab a herbal remedy and become a Size Four! Tarot cards provide the best financial advice!

Chris Hemsworth is a rare breed of influencer, writes Madonna King. Picture: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

This just encourages crime, unfathomable fantasies, and risky behaviour. Research suggests 40 per cent of Australians are more likely to buy a certain brand after an influencer posts about it, showing how vulnerable our teens might be.

Likewise new mums are bait for some disgraceful ‘mummy influencers’ whose only expertise might be a child of their own.

Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, draws an analogy with our beaches, in warning of the dangers lurking inside our children’s phones.

“We cannot totally fence off this vast digital ocean, but can equip young people with essential survival skills to not just keep their heads above the waves, but to thrive and stay safer,’’ she says.

We provide swimming lessons for our children, have lifesavers at the ready, and encourage them to swim between the flags.

In Inman Grant’s analogy the influence and influencer markets are what lies, without our knowledge, under the water’s surface.

And we should all know about the perilous danger of ocean rips.

Originally published as Madonna King: If you were a kid in 2025, would you survive?