'Hot Water Challenge' is sending children to hospital

[midian182]

WTF?! Are Internet challenges becoming more dangerous and stupid? Judging by one “prank,” yes, definitely. The so-called Hot Water challenge consists of either throwing freshly boiled water over someone while they are sleeping, or drinking it through a straw.

The Tide Pod challenge from earlier this year, which involved YouTubers and members of the public videoing themselves consuming the detergent-filled pods, was pretty high on the danger/stupidity scale. Then came the Drake-inspired Kiki Challenge. A viral trend that sees people dancing alongside a moving car—something so potentially dangerous that police have warned participants they may face criminal charges.

The Hot Water challenge, however, is on a different level. Several children have suffered serious burns as the result of people trying out the ‘game’ after looking it up on YouTube, and one died after drinking the boiling liquid.

As reported by Fox 59, a 15-year-old Indianapolis boy suffered second degree burns on his back, chest, and face when his friend poured the water on him as he slept. The pair had been looking up the challenge and he decided to try it out as a joke.

“And then I looked down at my chest. My skin just fell off my chest, and then I looked in the mirror, and I had skin falling off here and on my face,” said Kyland Clark.

Other children, including an 11-year-old from the Bronx and ten-year-old from North Carolina, have also suffered burns from having hot water poured on them. In March last year, an 8-year-old girl died after her cousin, who is the same age, dared her to drink the boiling liquid. The pair had also reportedly been watching the challenge on YouTube.

While there haven’t been a huge number of reported incidents of people participating in the Hot Water challenge, it’s still a worrying phenomenon. While most people would know not to try anything like this, children, especially those of a very young age, sometimes copy what they see online without being aware of the dangers.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/75797-youtube-hot-water-challenge-sending-children-hospital.html

 

[Bubbajim]

Seriously, people?

 

[Vulcanproject]

Natural selection isn't working as well as it once did it seems, people just get dumber every year.

 

[jonny888]

Misleading/unfair title. The 'challenge' was not made by Youtube, which makes it incorrect to give them ownership of it. People are merely using it as a platform to do so.

 

[Hexic]

Darwinism is alive and well.

 

[Julio Franco]

Misleading/unfair title. The 'challenge' was not made by Youtube, which makes it incorrect to give them ownership of it. People are merely using it as a platform to do so.

Fair enough.

 

[Hexic]

Fair enough.

Yeah, you edit that so good. Mmm.

 

[NicktheWVAHick]

Buckle-up, Keke......

 

[p51d007]

Another reason they should remove the warning labels on most things and allow natural selection to run its course. If you have to be warned not to use a toaster in the bath, not to squirt bug spray in your eyes, or throw hot water/drink it, then, you are sucking up all the good air in the world and need to go.

 

[Uncle Al]

And I repeat ..... these are the actions of our future leaders ....... God help us all!

 

[trparky]

Good... some chlorine for the gene pool.

 

[TomSEA]

You know, we could make this real quick and start a "throw yourself off a cliff" challenge to weed out the chaff.

Seriously, anyone stupid enough to do this "challenge" - even a kid - doesn't belong in the gene pool.

 

[penn919]

You know, we could make this real quick and start a "throw yourself off a cliff" challenge to weed out the chaff.

Was about to say the same thing. Take any suicidal act and add the word "challenge" at the end. That seems to be enough to do the trick.

 

[DelJo63]

Just how many lemmings are on the net??

 

[rvnwlfdroid]

All of these ridiculous challenges fall into a category of "Hold my beer" worthy. What is wrong with people, I swear people/generations are simply getting dumber. I really don't know if I want to be around another 40-50 years to see just how bad things can get. I know the movie idiocracy was meant to be a comedy but I'm starting to think of it as more of a Nostradamus type of prediction. Darwin, where the hell did you go? We need you back.....

 

[davislane1]

Over a 300% increase in public school spending over the past few decades and a more than 1000% increase in the number of people willing to do things that are obviously stupid.

That's impressive.

 

[gusticles41]

At 15 years old if you're unaware of how damaging boiling water can be then you need to re-do your childhood.

 

[jason lee]

First it was Tide pods, and now boiling water ? Dumb Americans, too much affluent culture.

 

[lipe123]

Survival of the fittest working as intended, the only downside is this hot water thing asks them to throw it on someone else!
That's totally not cool, fk your own life up and leave other people alone please.

 

[Polycount]

Survival of the fittest working as intended, the only downside is this hot water thing asks them to throw it on someone else!
That's totally not cool, fk your own life up and leave other people alone please.

Yeah, this is pretty messed up. Very not cool to throw boiling water on anybody, much less your friends and family.

Sad to see a few deaths from this. Nobody should ever have to go out in such a stupid way.

 

[ManuelV]

Natural selection isn't working as well as it once did it seems, people just get dumber every year.

It looks like people its getting desperate to make it work.

 

[TomSEA]

First it was Tide pods, and now boiling water ? Dumb Americans, too much affluent culture.

Yes, I'm sure ONLY Americans do stupid things.

 

[Bp968]

First it was Tide pods, and now boiling water ? Dumb Americans, too much affluent culture.

Yes, I'm sure ONLY Americans do stupid things.

Exactly. Its just that the media only reports stuff that gets views/clicks and no one cares if people are doing stupid stuff in africa, so we dont hear much about it. But trust me, the globe is choke full of people who are only still alive through dumb luck and the fact that they havent stumbled on the wrong YouTube video yet.

 

[JamesSWD]

A few things:

1) Although blatant stupidity is increasing, Darwinism can't do it's job to filter them out of the gene pool fast enough because we also have medical services & technologies that save them too fast.

2) These challenges are successful at attracting kids and young adults because they've grown up in an overly protective & safety-driven environment where they haven't been allowed to learn the basics of self-preservation that previous generations experienced & learned as kids.

a) I rarely ever see kids on bikes peddling around the neighborhoods any longer (and the ones that I do see are wearing silly body armor). Biking was a major teacher of real-life dangers & consequences:
* Evel Knievel-ing your bike off homemade ramps and ending up smacking the pavement with your face taught you life can be harsh...and to properly plan for your next jump
* Learning to look both ways before biking across a street
* Random encounters with thugs & child predators while biking in parks or bad neighborhoods taught you to recognize the signs of bad people from afar

b) Kids today can't learn that electrical sockets shock you and hot things burn you, like we learned back in the day with a fork and a match.

c) Too much helicopter-parenting has prevented kids from learning painful lessons that were crucial for dealing with life.

 

[wiyosaya]

Over a 300% increase in public school spending over the past few decades and a more than 1000% increase in the number of people willing to do things that are obviously stupid.

That's impressive.

So what you are saying is that there is no correlation to the increase in public school spending? I wonder where the disparity comes in then? Private schools? Schools run by churches? Home schooling?

Personally, I think it comes from the way our society tells everyone that you have to be noticed and have to make a mark on the world, so these obviously not so smart kids do stuff to leave their mark on society - sort of like Hinkley shot Reagan to impress Jodie Foster. That was an act of pure intelligence. /sarcasm