With children cooped up at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, parents say they are now more exposed to dangerous online "challenges."
PARENTS and guardians must always check on their children while they use the internet because they could be busy participating in peer challenges that could be permanently damaging to them or, worse, could cause their death.
Last March 22, a 12-year- old boy was participating in a “choking challenge” that dared him to see how long he could hold his breath by choking himself.
Joshua Haileyesus’s brother found him unconscious on the bathroom floor in their Colorado home, according to a GoFundMe set up for the family.
He is now in critical condition and his parents were convinced he participated in the dangerous choke challenge.
The dangerous viral games are nothing new in the world of social media. As far back as 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention attributed 82 youth deaths to a variation of the challenge.
During an interview with KCNC, Joshua's father, Haileyesus Zeryihun, said doctors told him shortly after the incident that Joshua would not survive the ordeal.
"I couldn't take it there, I was on the floor, I was crying," he told the outlet. "It was just heartbreaking to see him, laying on the bed."
The family said they hope to raise awareness about the online challenge to hopefully spare other parents from a similar experience.
"Our family is devastated beyond belief by Joshua's circumstance. We are saddened that someone who has a future as promising as Joshua is in such a critical and life-threatening situation at the moment," they wrote on GoFundMe.
"We are also concerned for other families who like ourselves, may not be aware of the existence of the Blackout Challenge and others like it."
"We are desperate not only to bring Joshua home, but to ensure that nothing like this happens to anyone else," they said. "We urge the community to spend awareness about Joshua and the real risks involved in not having knowledge of what kinds of activities children are involved in."
In 2018, 11-year-old Carson Bodkins died after participating in the choking challenge, and a year later, teenager Mason Bogard of Indiana died after he attempted the dare. (RdlC)
Tags: #UnitedStates, #chokingchallenge, #internet, #onlinebehavior