The Viral Milk Crate Challenge: A Fun Challenge or a Death Trap?
TikTok and other social media sites have been flooded in recent days by videos of people in the United States and beyond trying, and mostly failing, to climb the crates.
The challenge involves stacking some milk crates into stairs and forming a pyramid with it.
The participant is expected to climb up to the top of the pyramid-shaped crates and climb back down without destroying the structure.
Most videos end with what looks like a painful fall onto the collapsing crates, or the ground, as onlooker’s film on their phones in what some dubbed an event in the “Hood Olympics.”
Only a few participants were able to go up and down the shaky structure while maintaining their balance.
Asides TikTok, the challenge has caused a wave on Instagram feeds and reels, as people from different countries attempted the challenge.
Now, health experts have warned that people should not attempt the latest viral challenge.
“You’re at risk for… hitting your head and getting a head bleed,” said Dr. Chad Cannon, an emergency room doctor at the University of Kansas Health System.
If you land on the milk crate, you will break your back and be paralysed.”
Baltimore City Health pointed out that hospitals are already under strain from the pandemic.
“With Covid-19 hospitalizations rising around the country, please check with your local hospital to see if they have a bed available for you, before attempting the #milkcratechallenge,” the official account tweeted.
While the Hashtag was readily searchable on Twitter and Instagram on Wednesday, searches on TikTok returned no results.
TikTok also warned users to desist from acts that will endanger them.
A statement from TikTok read, “TikTok prohibits content that promotes or glorifies dangerous acts, and we remove videos and redirect searches to our Community Guidelines to discourage such content. We encourage everyone to exercise caution in their behavior whether online or off.”
The videos, and photographs of some appalling injuries, were reminiscent of an earlier internet sensation that had doctors tearing their hair out.
The 2018 Tide Pod Challenge saw young people biting into liquid laundry detergent packets.
Some social media users pointed out the likelihood that not all of those appearing in these videos in the United States would get free medical treatment.
