An increase in severe burn injuries at BC Children's Hospital has prompted a warning to parents that TikTok challenges may be encouraging kids to play with fire.
The videos feature everything from science experiments to homemade flamethrowers. Some ideas have been around for decades while others are new – but all are incredibly dangerous to try at home.
Dr. Sally Hynes, head of the burns program at BC Children’s, said she finds the trends “very concerning.”
“We see over 1,000 burn-related visits per year,” Hynes said. “But just this year, (there’s been) an increase in severity of burn injuries compared to prior years, and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to draw attention to this issue.”
Of particular concern, she said, are challenges involving accelerants such as rubbing alcohol or even gasoline, which could result in someone's clothes or even skin catching fire.
“Burns are exquisitely painful injuries, they are very traumatic injuries,” Hynes said. “Children will often require many dressing changes and in the case of larger burns, children become very sick from the burns – they have a widespread inflammatory response and fluid loss, they’re at risk of very severe infections.”
Hynes said she can’t speak to individual cases due to privacy issues but assured that in B.C., there are “families who are living their worst nightmare as a result of these challenges.”
She’s urging parents to be proactive in talking to children about the risks of playing with fire.
A teenager from North Carolina is recovering after suffering burns to nearly 80 per cent of his body when a TikTok challenge went horribly wrong. Mason Dark’s mother shared her son’s story on Facebook, saying the 16-year-old was playing with spray cans and a lighter to make a blowtorch. One of the cans ignited and his whole body was engulfed in flames.
He was in critical condition and rushed into intensive care, where he stayed for weeks. Dark was released from hospital in May and told CBS News that his message to other kids is: “Don’t do stupid things. Don’t play with fire.”
