Alarming Online Trend: The Banana Peel Challenge
It's the newest way in which young people are endangering themselves.
— -- A new social media trend that resembles something out of a cartoon could potentially cause people to sustain real injuries.
The banana peel challenge, where kids are walking on banana peels to see if they are as slippery as the classic cartoon cliché leads you to believe, is the latest viral challenge attracting thousands of clicks online.
It’s no laughing matter, however. Experts say these kinds of falls can lead to long-term or even permanent damage.
“They see the attention other kids get and it seems like a good idea at the time,” clinical psychologist Dena Rabinowitz told ABC News. “Adolescents often think they’re invincible or immortal so they just don’t think they’re the ones who are going to get hurt.”
It’s not the first dangerous challenge to become a fad on social media. There was the cinnamon challenge, which in some cases caused potential long-term lung damage, and also the duct tape challenge, which ended with a brain aneurysm for 14-year-old Skylar Fish.
“Now I just regret doing that challenge that day,” Fish said.
The video credited with starting the banana peel challenge has already been retweeted more than 100,000 times and duplicated by hundreds.
“A frank, honest conversation about the real-life risks and the reality of how bad the injuries can be are often enough to help teenagers move into the real world and out of that social media world,” said Rabinowitz.
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