Teenagers are always finding new ways to one-up one another on social media. This has resulted in dubious and potentially harmful viral challenges that have the younger generations excited for all the wrong reasons. Earlier this year, the Tide Pod Challenge began to sweep the Internet, which resulted in the company creating a social media campaign to warn individuals of the fatal harms of ingesting their laundry detergent.
That trend quickly waned and effectively set up an opportunity for a newer, and equally dangerous craze to captivate impressionable minds. Teenagers have been taking to social media to record videos of them snorting a condom up their nostrils and pulling it out of their mouths. Stephen Rodriguez, a specialist in education, indicates how this challenge has gained traction because of teens "doing everything for likes, views, and subscribers."
YouTube videos depicting this challenge date back to 2013; however, they have begun to gain traction in the present day, which has many concerned for the younger generations' safety.
Bruce Lee, a writer for Forbes, notes how "the condom could easily get stuck in your nose or your throat, blocking your breathing or causing you to choke." Lee also details incidents where two women were hospitalized for near fatal repercussions of accidentally swallowing a condom during oral sex, with one being treated for pneumonia and a partially collapsed lung, while the other had her appendix removed after a piece of latex became lodged in her organ.