Media reports on the death of a 13-year-old girlDangerous TikTok challenges: what parents and teachers need to know now
Challenges and tests of courage have enjoyed great popularity on social media platforms for many years. A content analysis by the North Rhine-Westphalia State Media Authority recently showed that the majority of dance or singing challenges in circulation are harmless. However, around a third of the videos analyzed also contain potentially harmful tests of courage. Only 1 percent of the videos evaluated showed potentially deadly challenges. This clearly shows that although there are indeed dangerous and deadly challenges on TikTok, they are not as widespread as some media reports suggest in comparison to harmless challenges. Some articles also give the impression that platforms such as TikTok give free rein to dangerous tests of courage. In fact, TikTok blocks harmful challenges and the search terms associated with them. According to TikTok's community guidelines, it is forbidden to show activities "that are highly likely to be imitated and could lead to physical harm". But this is also true: If a harmful video is not regulated by TikTok early enough or sufficiently, the platform's algorithm allows challenges to spread widely within a few weeks.
Note: Reports about dangerous challenges promote the spread
Children and young people learn about challenges not only via TikTok, but also through traditional media, for example. It is therefore advisable not to report on potentially dangerous and deadly challenges at all or only with classification. jugendschutz.net also warns in its practical information "Dangerous online challenges and tests of courage":"The more reports there are about dangerous online challenges and tests of courage, the more attention they receive. However, this harbors the risk that children and young people will search for challenges online, which increases the risk of imitation."
How do you protect children and young people from challenges?
The most important protection for children and young people is competent and trustworthy contact persons. It is important that adults do not make sweeping condemnations of what happens on the internet or on social media. If children experience that their contact persons react in a derogatory manner to important parts of their lives, they are unlikely to accept any further offers of conversation. Ideally, parents and teachers should also be familiar with the platforms themselves so that children perceive them as credible and competent.
Parents and guardians should also make sure that their children only use social media when they are mature enough to do so. According to the general terms and conditions, all major social media platforms may only be used from the age of 13. The accounts of people under the age of 18 can also be linked to a parent account. This allows parents to accompany their children on the platforms. Instructions for the safe settings of devices and apps can be found at www.medien-kindersicher.de.
Parents are usually the most important role models for their children, so they are best placed to set an example of how to deal critically with internet content. This means that you should not only talk to your children about their Internet behavior, but also about your own. Children take their cue from their parents' behavior. At klicksafe.de there are many materials for parents to help with media education.
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How to protect children from dangerous challenges
- Stay in regular exchanges with children and young peopleto find out which tests of courage are currently popular.
- Don't condemn challenges across the board and help interested children and young people to find safe challenges.
- Discuss the fact that there are also many fakes circulating among risky challenges. Encourage children and young people to critically question what they see.
- Encourage children and young people not to put themselves and others in danger and not to give in to peer pressure.
- Make it clear that sharing dangerous challenges can endanger others and should therefore be avoided.
- Do not warn others yourself by posting or sharing dangerous challenges. This can lead to the challenges being spread again.
- Inform other parents and the class teacher calmly and prudently if dangerous challenges are circulating among friends or at school.
- Children and adults can report harmful internet challenges directly to the platforms or to internet-beschwerdestelle.de and jugendschutz.net report.
- Prevent children with anonymous help services such as www.nummergegenkummer.de or www.juuuport.de familiarize them with these. Not every topic can or wants to be discussed with parents or teachers.
Further information on the topic
