Another day, another new challenge.
It seems like the number of TikTok trends and challenges just keeps spiking like the sales of pineapples when Tharman won presidency by a landslide.
Do you remember the Renegade dance challenge from the pandemic era, or the celebrity look-alike challenge? Now, we’ve got something even sillier.
Of course, most of these trends tend to kick off in the United States, where there are over 80 million monthly users.
So, what’s the latest viral TikTok challenge now, you ask?
It’s not as exciting as you might hope.
Viral Online Challenge of Cracking Eggs on Children’s Heads
The most recent viral online challenge that has been going around on many people’s For You Page (FYP) is the Egg Crack Challenge.
This challenge involves parents cracking eggs on their kids’ heads as a prank. In these TikTok videos, you’ll see kids of all ages, some laughing it off, while others look pretty shocked and upset.
Now, for some strange reason, there are folks out there who find this kind of content amusing. But for most of us, it’s more disturbing than entertaining, and it surely raises some serious questions about parenting.
Criticism From Parenting Creators and Medical Experts
While the viral social media trend with the hashtag #eggcrackchallenge has garnered more than 77.4 million views as of today (5 September 2023), the challenge has gained traction from the parenting and medical community, and not for good reasons.
Popular parenting content creator Rachel Griffin Accurso has spoken out against this challenge, reminding everyone that we should never cause physical or emotional discomfort to our kids.
Medical experts are chiming in the conversation too, warning that this trend could expose children to the risk of salmonella infection because raw eggs can be contaminated.
Symptoms of salmonella infection include diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever, nausea, and vomiting. Pediatrician Dr Meghan Martin even mentioned that children with salmonella could end up in the hospital needing IV fluids.
It almost seems like some parents in the United States are so bored that cracking eggs on their kids’ heads for social media seems like a normal pastime.
Let’s not forget the emotional impact on these poor kids too.
Child trauma psychotherapist Dr Cath Knibbs expressed to The Washington Post how difficult it is to watch these clips. It’s not just about the egg-cracking, it’s the parents’ laughter that can be humiliating and destroy trust for these kids.
The difference in power dynamic can also be seen in these videos, and parents are forgetting to put their children first and examine if this activity could be harmful to them before partaking in the challenge for virality.
Instead of cracking eggs on poor young children and subjecting them to bizarre challenges, why don’t we learn how to put eggs for better use?
Like…cooking them, perhaps?