A distraught mother is warning parents after her teenage son was left with third and second-degree burns after trying a dangerous social media challenge.
Alabama mom Tiffany Crutcher says she’d placed a series of candles around her home in preparation for a storm that threatened to take out her electricity when the worst happened.
According to Crutcher, her 13-year-old son, Dzhyan, took the opportunity to try out a dangerous social media challenge that involved throwing alcohol over an open flame.
“He went into the bathroom and he took a candle and poured alcohol onto it,” she reportedly said in a statement to Kennedy News & Media, as per the NYP. “It exploded onto him, catching him on fire. I was there immediately. I heard the explosion.”
Teenager receives third-degree burns trying social media challenge
Crutcher says her son received third and second-degree burns on his face, neck, chest, and stomach.
“I tried to put him out with my hands at first,” she added. “We were taught to stop, drop and roll, so I tried that, and it didn’t work… He was completely on fire from the waist up. It was terrifying.”
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Luckily, the flames were finally put out when Crutcher’s youngest son handed his mom a fire extinguisher… but by then, the damage was already done.
Crutcher’s son isn’t the only child who’s been badly burned after attempting a social media ‘challenge.’ As reported by ABC 7 Chicago, mother Holli Dark’s son, Mason Dark, was severely burned after setting fire to a can of spray paint.
This is far from the first time an online challenge has resulted in serious injuries. In fact, some of these viral challenges have even caused the death of several children, as in the case of the ‘Blackout Challenge’ that sparked outrage last year after several kids passed away after trying to hold their breath until they passed out.
As a result, several parents banded together to sue TikTok, arguing that the platform’s “product and its algorithm directed exceedingly and unacceptably dangerous challenges and videos.”
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