5 Dangerous TikTok Trends You Are Better Off Without Trying

TikTok could be injurious to your health. Literally. The video creation and sharing app generated a global craze even as it first surfaced in 2016. From there on, it has grown to dominate the market at one billion monthly users in 2022. But is anyone stopping to think what this mass userbase is being exposed to?

The Chinese app is home to endless creative content but it also shelters darker corners. TikTok is among the apps that lead the space of dangerous challenges on the internet. While trending games have been around digitally for some years now - recall the lethal Blue Whale Challenge and the mindless Ice Bucket Challenge - TikTok has unfortunately become a hotspot for all things bizarre and nasty.

Here are some TikTok challenges that have occupied user interests at different points of time in recent years but should rather have not.

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5 Dangerous TikTok Trends You Should Be Wary Of:

1. Sleepy Chicken 

The sleepy chicken trend, bizarre as it was, was a revival of an earlier challenge that went popular on Reddit some years ago. Netizens daring enough to partake in the trend apparently have to cook raw chicken in cold medicine - most prominently NyQuil - and the concoction would turn out to be a remedy for the flu. Doctors, however, flagged the risks this chicken dish carried, calling attention to the concentration of drugs saturated in the meat in this kind of preparation. More on that here.

2. Blackout Challenge 

This trend required its players to hold their breaths on camera until the point that they passed out. Also called the 'choking challenge,' reports claim the stunt is responsible for multiple child deaths in the United States. Last year, 10-year-old Nyla Anderson passed away while allegedly attempting this challenge, as per her mother. The girl fell unconscious in her room and was rushed to hospital when her parents discovered her, but she couldn't be saved.

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3. Fish Tank Cleaner

In one of the latest trends to surface on TikTok, some netizens are reportedly recommending the consumption of fish tank cleaner solution to slow down aging and boost metabolism. As per New York Post, TikTokers - fitness influencers in particular - are under fire from doctors for touting methylene blue as an anti-aging remedy. While the salt is used as prescribed medication for humans in some cases, doctors are saying claims that it reverses aging is bogus.

4. Dry Scooping 

This was also a trend from last year that doctors urgently warned against. Apparently, TikTok users were encouraging each other to ingest a scoopful of dry protein powder directly without diluting it with water, as is recommended. Doing this would give a greater boost to energy pre-workout, they claimed. Doctors strongly advised against it citing the various health hazards the artificial ingredients in these powders could cause. As per reports, the trend even led to a 20-year-old facing a heart attack.

5. Slap A Teacher

One of the most vicious and mean-spirited trends to ever surface on platforms like TikTok was the 'slap a teacher' trend that led to incidents of assaults on some campuses in the US. A notable one that came to the fore was a disabled teacher in Louisiana allegedly being pushed out of her wheelchair by her student attempting the challenge. TikTok called the "rumoured" challenge an "insult to educators" and warned that if videos of it surfaced on the app, they would be removed. Read here.