Boy suffers horrific burns during deadly social media challenge
A 12-year-old boy is badly burnt after he and his friend took part in a dangerous social media stunt.
Jason Cleary, from Detroit in the US state of Michigan, suffered second-degree burns after his friend sprayed him with nail polish remover and set him on fire in what is known as the ‘fire challenge’, according to NBC.
Jason spent four days in hospital following the horrific incident and his mother Tabitha Clearly is now warning others about how dangerous these ‘challenges’ are.
“I just want everybody to know that these challenges, or whatever they’re watching on YouTube, is not worth risking your life," Ms Cleary told WDIV.
"My son got burned second-degree — and it could have been way worse."
According to Jason, the first time his friend applied nail polish and set him alight the fire was “little”, so he put it out and “kept spraying” nail polish.
The ‘fire challenge’ started spreading on social media back in 2010. People would share videos of themselves coating a flammable substance on their body before lighting themselves on fire.
The ‘goal’ of the challenge is to extinguish the fire before getting injured, according to Injury Prevention Research Centre.
The ‘fire challenge’ was the first ‘well known’ burn-related social media challenge.
Then came the ‘hot water challenge’, which involved people pouring boiling water onto unsuspecting or willing victims – which then evolved to people drinking boiling water.
According the the Injury Prevention Research Centre, Dr Jason Heard from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics has studied the social media phenomena where people willingly partake in dangerous stunts.
Dr Heard said although such stunts have been around forever, social media has assisted in them in going viral.
“Peer pressure definitely plays a role in these challenges, but even more important is something I will term ‘social media pressure,’” Heard said.
“Children and young adults today not only have this pressure to fit in with their local friend group, but they also have this pressure to fit in or become ‘viral’ on a national and international level.”
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