Should you be worried about the ‘skull breaker’ challenge?
It’s the viral Tik Tok challenge causing injuries to kids around the world and Sydney parents are sharing warnings of the dangerous prank on social media. Here’s what you need to know.
NSW
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It’s the latest social media prank alarming parents in Sydney.
For weeks, horror stories have been emerging from the US and Europe about the ‘skullbreaker challenge’, a jumping game where a person on either side kicks the legs out of the one in between, sending them crashing to the ground.
Parents on Sydney-based social media forums have been warning others of the dangerous craze, with one mum telling The Daily Telegraph her 12-year-old daughter had been lucky to escape injury doing the prank.
“Thank goodness no one was hurt, after years of judo my daughter knows how to break her fall,” she said. “I have warned her about the dangers and now she is aware.”
This week, one of Adelaide’s biggest public schools issued a warning against the dangerous craze, also called the “tripping jump challenge”, which began in Spain on the TikTok app.
While alarm grows on social media forums and mum’s group, much of the fear around the prank has grown in large part because of videos being shared warning other parents.
The NSW Department of Education’s Health and Safety Directorate said it has had no reports of the ‘challenge’ occurring in schools.
Warning âš ï¸!! Skullbreaker Challenge is viral now a days I request you all to show this to children and teach them it is really dangerous #skullbreakerchallenge pic.twitter.com/SObHbVx5Cc
— Faizan Ahmed Abbasi (@FaizanAbbassi) February 17, 2020
DANGEROUS - WARN YOUR KIDS. PLEASE SHARE. The Skull Breaker Challenge. People kick feet from underneath an unexpecting person when they jump. Kids are losing their life/serious injuries. This prank was perpetrated on a special needs person. My Lord!!! https://t.co/iEMA3vxTs3 pic.twitter.com/c1iRcLbUOK
— Stephen4Equity (@Stephen4Equity) February 15, 2020
A number of people have been injured overseas including in the US where doctors issued warnings about the dangers of the challenge.
An Arkansas boy sustained a concussion last week when his friends decided to pull the prank on him and another boy in Arizona suffered head injuries after becoming the victim of the “malicious cruel viral prank”.
TikTok’s community guide lines say the app does not promote dangerous activities and a spokesman for the company told Fox News yesterday it was working to remove any videos about the prank.
“The safety of our users is our top priority at TikTok, and we do not allow content that encourages or replicates dangerous challenges that might lead to injury. The behaviour in question is a violation of our Community Guidelines and we will continue to remove this content from our platform,” the company said in a statement.