First there was planking and then the Cinnamon Challenge. Yep, 2017 has seen some weird social media crazes - and it’s only halfway through the year.
Now a new craze has taken over the internet, and it’s not pretty. Called the Deodorant Challenge, it’s tearing through UK schools faster than wildfire, and parents have cause for concern.
The Independent first caught a whiff of it after a worried mother appeared on ITV’s This Morning. Schoolgirl Kaitlyn Stanley revealed how she had burnt her own arm repeatedly using an aerosol deodorant because “it looks really cool.”
“My friends started doing it. You spray it and then it goes white and it looks really cool so I tried it,” the 12-year-old told presenter Rylan Clarke-Neil.
Participants are challenged to spray aerosol deodorant as close as possible to the skin for as long they can endure it. The result is skin being covered in burns which could lead to long-term damage.
Before going on to the show Kaitlyn’s mother Sara Stanley posted images of her daughter’s skin damage on Facebook and the post went viral, with many parents responding that their children too had been taking part in the challenge. The post has since been removed from Facebook.
Dr Ranj Singh, a British doctor specialising in the wellbeing of young children, was brought on as an expert. “What the deodorant does is cool your skin down really rapidly and essentially you get frostbite that breaks the skin down,” he said.
“Not only does that hurt and so you get problems with pain. It breaks the skin barrier down, it can predispose you to infection, it can damage the pigment - and that can be long-term.”
Singh also alerted parents to the fact that the craze can increase the risk of more serious complications like skin cancer.
Other dangerous social media crazes:
Cinnamon Challenge. This dangerous practice requires someone to swallow a spoonful of cinnamon in 60 seconds without drinking water.
Salt and Ice. Friends hold a salt and ice mixture against the participant’s skin. Whoever can hold the salt and ice the longest, “wins.”
Duct Tape Challenge. This involves duct- taping participants to a pole so they can break free. It went viral on YouTube last year