Dozens of children have been injured during a ‘Superman challenge,’ the newest trend on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram.
Footage circulating on social media shows pupils – some as young as 10 years old – taking part during breaks at school and filming it for content.
A video shared on an Instagram page with 2.6 million followers, showing youngsters from Southampton F.C. Under-21s doing it, has for example amassed nearly 50,000 likes.
In clips on YouTube, adults are also seen taking part and even pranking their friends by pulling their arms from under them just before ‘landing’.
Another post on Instagram also shows a man falling and slamming his head into a table during the challenge.
As part of the challenge, participants are hurled into the air by classmates and are supposed to make a superhero pose before landing, imitating a jump into the sea.
These videos – still available on Instagram and YouTube, while TikTok is now blocking the content – have spread across the world, gathering millions of views.
It has emerged that was supposed to be just a game has now left multiple children with wounds that could take a long time to heal.
In Romania, 20 children have been injured, according to local reports, and in Israel at least 19 suffered injuries severe enough to be hospitalised.
Reports from Bosnia and Herzegovina say that more than 20 teenagers have been wounded while undertaking the challenge.
Doctors there say some children aged 12 to 16 have suffered serious head injuries.
The mother of one 12-year-old from the Montenegrin capital Podgorica, who injured his hand while doing the challenge on Monday, was left ‘shocked’.
She told BIRN that her son told them later that he had wanted to try the game with his friends because it did not seem dangerous.
‘He told us that after we finished the doctor’s examination and when we began to investigate in detail how he got hurt in the gym, and where the teacher was,’ she said.
‘We thought there was no possibility that a child with whom so many challenges are discussed on social networks … who hears every day how dangerous it all is, and who has parental supervision, could get into that situation,” she added.
Montenegrin police on Wednesday warned about the risks of the new challenge, without specifying how many children have been injured in it so far.
While TikTok has removed videos of the ‘Superman challenge’, YouTube and Instagram still have them up.
A TikTok spokesperson said: ‘For the safety of our community, we proactively detect and remove content that shows or promotes dangerous activity or challenges.’
Metro has contacted both YouTube and Instagram for comments.
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