Traumatizing Kids on Social Media Is Not as Funny as it Sounds

The latest social media trends may be great fun, but some of them have serious consequences. You should not attempt to try every viral trend on social media, especially if it involves kids. Parents should practice extra caution while engaging their children in making social media videos, especially the ones following scary or disturbing activities.

The Current TikTok Trend

TikTok is the social media platform that has come up with more trends in the last few years than any other media. In the latest TikTok trend, tagged #ghostprank, parents are scaring their little children using a creepy ghost filter. The videos usually involve the parents running out of a room leaving their kids behind, then locking them in the room with lights off and the ghost filter on. As anybody can imagine, the children become terrified, and they scream, cry, and frantically try to unlock the door, hide, or escape the room in any other way. After a few minutes, the parents reveal themselves and rescue the poor child, who has already been frightened! This prank has gained huge popularity for some bizarre reason.

The Probable Effect

Parents may not realize that the effects of such social media pranks can be both immediate and long-lasting. Anything can happen in those few minutes your child is left alone in a state of complete panic. The child can pull some wires, bang their head, have feelings of convulsions, and even faint. In the long-term, such incidents can cause trust issues between the child and the parents, as generally children can remember trauma from as early as infancy. So, even if they don’t remember the exact incident, the trauma remains embedded and it never leaves them. So, the parents are here causing trauma to their children, just so others could laugh on social media at their expense. It’s time to stop and rethink.