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From Fox News: Potentially dangerous social media trends are getting kids, and potentially homeowners, into trouble this summer while kids are out of school.
Two trends in particular are going viral on social media, including the “UrbanEx,” or “urban exploration,” challenge and the “door-kicking challenge.”
Law enforcement agencies across the country are warning of both trends, the former of which challenges social media users to explore abandoned buildings and the latter of which challenges them to kick in strangers’ doors.
“There’s a new trend every day. … You go to the FYP, the For You Page, you see what’s trending. And then pretty soon, you’ll see content created by children, which is in and of itself problematic. A lot of the children under the age of 13 … are legally not allowed to even be on social media,” said digital content expert Titania Jordan, CMO and chief parent officer at parental control app Bark Technologies.
Users aim to create “content that elicits a reaction,” Jordan explained, “that has viral components, resurfaces and resurfaces again, thanks again to the algorithm.”
“This sort of content is going to get likes, it’s going to get comments, it is going to get shares. It’s going to encourage children to try to emulate it because it’s clout — they gain clout from their peers because of this,” she said.
“…Any challenge like this, children aren’t thinking, ‘Is this the right thing to do? Is this safe?’ They’re thinking, ‘I want validation,’ and children are going to get killed. I mean, just one person who is armed who gets their door kicked in by a kid, and you’re gonna have another national headline that is very sad.”
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