When risk meets repetition, tragedy stops being hypothetical
In 2022, a viral trend asked a simple, baffling question: What happens if you cook chicken in cough syrup?
The answer was dangerous. The NyQuil Chicken Challenge involved drenching chicken in medicated cold syrup and boiling them, a process that concentrates the drug as liquid evaporates. Health experts warned that NyQuil’s active ingredients, including acetaminophen and dextromethorphan, can become extremely toxic in high doses, and that even inhaling the fumes could pose serious risks.
This was just one of many potentially deadly viral challenges to emerge online. Others include the Bird Box Challenge, inspired by the Netflix film, in which participants blindfolded themselves and walked into traffic or other dangerous situations.
Another is the Blackout Challenge, also known as the ‘choking game,’ which involves briefly, depriving the brain of oxygen.
Some online challenges have been even more disturbing. The Blue Whale Challenge, which drew global attention in 2016, was widely reported to involve a series of escalating ‘tasks’ spread over 50 days, allegedly ending in self-harm. While researchers and law-enforcement agencies have since questioned how widespread, or even organised, the challenge truly was, its viral spread and intense media coverage exposed a deeper problem: how fear, myth and real vulnerability can collide online, blurring the line between digital spectacle and genuine harm.
The list goes on. So, how do you, as a parent protect your child from the dangers of viral challenges?
“So whenever there is a feeling of isolation and low self-esteem or depression, definitely there is a high tendency for some people to engage in such games because we can see it as some sort of emotional or psychological vulnerability, which increases the risk of any similar behaviour…”
Nashwa Tantawy
clinical psychologist and managing director of Nafsology Psychology Center in Dubai
Why children and teenagers are vulnerable
To an adult, these challenges look reckless. To a teenager, they can feel irresistible. So what turns a fleeting idea into a dangerous act and why does the rush matter more than the risk?
The answer, might still lie in brain development, as clinical psychologist Nashwa Tantawy, a Dubai-based clinical psychologist, managing director of Nafsology Psychology Center, Dubai, says. “We always say that children and teenagers’ brain is still under construction,” she notes, pointing out that full development doesn’t occur until around the age of 19 or 20. The area responsible for judgment, impulse control and understanding long-term consequences, the prefrontal cortex, matures last. Meanwhile, the amygdala, which governs emotions and instinctive responses, is especially active during adolescence.
As a result, decisions are often driven more by emotion and social cues than by logic. For some young people, particularly those grappling with depression, anxiety, trauma or underlying personality vulnerabilities, participation in dangerous challenges can become a way to express distress or escape emotional pain.
When psychological vulnerability intersects with this developmental stage and exposure to harmful online content, Tantawy warns, the risk of engaging in dangerous behaviour rises significantly.”
She also notes a troubling trend in clinical settings: teenagers today often feel more isolated than those just a few years ago. Increased online interaction, constant comparison and pressure to fit in can fuel low self-esteem and emotional fragility, fertile ground for dangerous online trends to take hold.
Why validation matters more than safety
Furthermore, children and teens who feel isolated or excluded, could also turn to online spaces to meet their own needs for belonging and recognition, as Sneha John, a clinical psychologist notes. “People who feel lonely, unseen, or disconnected are far more likely to seek belonging online. For a young person with low self-esteem, participating in a challenge can feel like a way to finally be noticed or valued.”
When depression looms, the concern for personal safety can be overlooked, not because the child wants to be harmed, but because they feel emotionally numb or hopeless about the future.
And there are those, who succumb to peer pressure and have a desire to prove something to others.
The online world intensifies the existing peer pressure by making it constant and public. And so, backing out of a challenge, feels like a public failure, adds Dr John. Participating in one, is rewarding. “For many teens, the fear of exclusion or ridicule outweighs warnings about safety.”
Finally, most challenges begin with curiosity and novelty. As more participate, the behaviour becomes normalised. Tasks then escalate gradually, increasing commitment and reducing perceived choice.
Over time, compliance occurs not because the child wants harm, but because social pressure and investment make withdrawal feel impossible. This progression closely mirrors grooming dynamics rather than spontaneous risk-taking.
Warning signs parents should watch for
This gradual shift from curiosity to compliance often shows up first not in a single dangerous act, but in subtle changes in behaviour, mood and online habits.
- Increased secrecy around phone or online activity
Hiding screens, deleting browsing history, using secondary accounts, or becoming defensive when asked about what they’re watching or posting. - Sudden mood changes
Unexplained irritability, anxiety, withdrawal, or emotional outbursts — especially after being online. - Sleep disruption
Staying up late on devices, waking during the night to check notifications, or chronic fatigue during the day. - Obsession with likes, views or online validation
Constantly checking engagement, tying self-worth to numbers, or becoming distressed when posts don’t perform well. - Withdrawal from offline relationships
Losing interest in friends, family activities, hobbies or routines they previously enjoyed. - Risk-taking language or behaviour
Talking casually about “dares,” “challenges,” or doing something “just for fun” despite obvious danger. - Sudden changes in peer groups
New online friends who exert strong influence, encourage secrecy, or pressure them to ‘prove’ themselves. - Physical warning signs
Unexplained injuries, marks around the neck, dizziness, frequent headaches, or signs of exhaustion. - Emotional red flags
Expressions of worthlessness, hopelessness, feeling invisible, or statements like ‘no one would care if I wasn’t here.’ - Loss of interest in consequences
Minimising danger, dismissing safety concerns, or showing indifference to personal well-being. - Escalating screen dependence
Distress, anger or panic when devices are taken away or access is limited. - Changes in academic performance
Sudden drop in grades, difficulty concentrating, or disengagement from schoolwork.
“Online platforms intensify peer pressure by making it constant and public. Likes, comments, and shares act as immediate rewards, reinforcing behaviour through dopamine release. Backing out of a challenge can feel like public failure, while participating offers instant social validation. For many teens, the fear of exclusion or ridicule outweighs warnings about safety…”
Dr. Sneha John
clinical psychologist at Medcare Camali Clinic
The algorithm effect: Why it feels impossible to look away
When risk meets repetition, tragedy stops being hypothetical.
A few months ago, ‘subway surfer’ challenge sparked widespread alarm in the US, as teenagers began climbing onto the roofs of moving subway cars, encouraged by viral social media videos. The danger was obvious, and so was the inevitability of it spreading. By October 2025, the risks had turned fatal. Two teenage girls, aged 12 and 13 were found dead on top of a Brooklyn-bound J train. The deaths were not isolated. According to New York Police Department data, 18 subway surfers died across 2023 and 2024, with 12 fatalities recorded in 2024 alone.
But if it’s not the subway challenge dominating social media, it is something else. Gregory Fantham, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Heriot-Watt University Dubai, places today’s crisis in a broader context. Today’s children, he says, are growing up in an online social environment unlike anything previous generations have experienced, and they’re also the Covid generation, whose formative years were shaped by isolation from face-to-face interaction.
Online spaces can offer freedom and experimentation, and not all of that is harmful. But Fantham points to a more insidious danger: psychological risk-taking that flourishes precisely because the environment feels physically safe.
Speaking from experience, he recalls how, in kindergarten, the boy sitting next to his daughter once used small scissors to snip a pinch of skin from the back of her hand. “He was curious, and there was blood, but the situation was dealt with,” he says. Online, however, young people experience a new freedom to take that kind of psychological ‘skin-snipping’ to far greater extremes. “The very physical safety of the environment encourages psychological risk-taking.”
This dynamic is intensified by platform algorithms. Social media rewards operate on quasi-random schedules: likes and views arrive unpredictably, conditioning users to keep posting, keep scrolling, keep pushing boundaries. For children whose self-esteem is still forming, those rewards can begin to feel essential, almost like oxygen.
That is why it is so difficult to simply say “no.” When young people are emotionally dysregulated or seeking validation, rational warnings about danger often fall flat. Fear-based or punitive responses can instead deepen secrecy and shame, pushing risky behaviour further underground rather than stopping it.
“How do you do something about it? Be aware that your children know your moves! Don’t try to be devious and clever. They see through you. Don’t play with fear. Listen to what they have to say about their experience online. You might learn something. Be direct in expressing your concerns, and encourage them to think critically.”
Gregory Fantham
Assistant Professor of Psychology at Heriot-Watt University Dubai
What actually protects young children
Across experts, the conclusion is clear: connection is the strongest protection. Children and teenagers are far less likely to engage in dangerous online behaviour when they have emotionally attuned adults, open communication without fear of punishment, a stable sense of self-worth, and healthy outlets for risk-taking offline.
Dangerous online challenges don’t thrive because children want to get hurt. They thrive at the intersection of developing brains, emotional vulnerability and powerful systems of social validation.
In a world that keeps asking children to prove themselves, the most radical thing we can offer is reassurance: you are already enough.
What parents can do — starting now
1. Talk early, not only after a scare
Don’t wait for a headline or a school warning. Ask casually what they’re seeing online, what challenges they’ve heard about, and what they think of them. Curiosity opens doors that interrogation shuts.
2. Make your child safer than the internet
Children are more likely to hide risky behaviour if they fear punishment. Make it clear that coming to you won’t lead to shame, panic or confiscation, but to support and problem-solving.
3. Name the pressure out loud
Say things like: ‘Online dares are designed to make backing out feel embarrassing.’ When children understand the mechanism, it loses some of its power.
4. Watch for changes, not just screens
Focus less on screen time alone and more on shifts in mood, sleep, secrecy, friendships and self-worth. Behavioural changes are often the first red flag.
5. Build self-worth offline
Sports, music, volunteering, creative outlets and unstructured play give children a sense of identity that doesn’t depend on likes or views. Belonging offline reduces the need to chase it online.
6. Keep devices out of bedrooms at night
Late-night scrolling amplifies impulsivity, emotional vulnerability and peer pressure. Sleep is a protective factor.
7. Use parental controls as backup, not the plan
Filters and restrictions help, but they don’t replace conversation. Tools should support trust, not substitute it.
8. Take emotional distress seriously and early
If a child shows signs of depression, withdrawal or hopelessness, seek professional support sooner rather than later. Prevention is far easier than repair.
