The death of a teenage boy who overdosed on an allergy drug as part of an online game has shone a light on the dangers of social media challenges.
Thirteen-year-old Jacob Stevens, from Columbus, Ohio, swallowed more than a dozen Benadryl pills as his friends filmed to see what would happen.
His body then began to seize up within minutes. Within hours his organs began to shut down and his brain became nonresponsive. Stevens died after six days on a ventilator.
Stevens is the third known victim of the ‘Benadryl Challenge’, a deadly viral TikTok game that supposedly induces hallucinations. In 2020, a 15-year-old girl from Oklahoma also died from overdosing on the pills.
Social media challenges began as fun initiatives to raise awareness for chronic conditions, such as the Ice Bucket Challenge, has now morphed into sinister and dangerous trends.
One of the most dangerous, the Blackout Challenge, involves teens purposely restricting their breathing by choking themselves with a belt, rope, or similar item. It resulted in more than 80 deaths when it first emerged and caused another 15 last year.
And the Skull Breaker challenge, in which two participants purposely try to make a third person fall and hit their head on the ground, has caused several deaths and resulted in criminal charges for those partaking.
Others that have resulted deaths or injuries involve drinking hand sanitizer to ‘get drunk’ and taking sleeping pills and seeing who can stay awake longest.
Many young people participate in these challenges, though clearly unsafe, to fit in.
‘When people interact with the influencers and take part in these challenges, it gives them a sense of belonging and or notoriety even, and young people especially are looking for acceptance. That also includes social media acceptance,’ Dr Kelly Johnson-Arbor, MD, medical toxicology physician for the National Capital Poison Center, told DailyMail.com.
Blackout Challenge
Also referred to as the ‘choking game’ or the ‘pass-out challenge,’ this social media trend involves the participant purposely restricting their breathing with a belt, rope, or similar item.
The challenge predates TikTok and goes back to 2008, during which 82 deaths were confirmed, according to the CDC.
However, it has seen a recent resurgence.
A late 2022 Bloomberg Businessweek report linked at least 15 deaths in children under 12 and under to the challenge in the last 18 months. Five more children between ages 13 and 14 died as well.
Victims were as young as eight years old.
Two more deaths have been confirmed in 2023: 12-year-old Tristan Casson of Ohio and 12-year-old Milagros Soto of Argentina.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a list of signs that might indicate someone is trying the blackout challenge, including bloodshot eyes, marks on the neck, severe headaches, and feeling disoriented after spending time alone.
