Parents today faced a furious backlash over a new TikTok challenge that saw them crack eggs on their kids’ heads.
Footage shows toddlers left confused, in pain or bursting into tears after the ‘egg crack challenge’ – which some have likened to child abuse.
Other critics accused the parents of exploiting their children to gain a following on social media.
In some cases, the children appear older and are seen smiling after the egg breaks on their heads.
Among those criticizing the trend was Sarah Adams, who campaigns online against parental “oversharing.”
In this case, the child screamed “mommy” and started crying after the egg cracked on him
Meanwhile, this toddler seemed confused when her mother broke an egg on her head during a cooking session
She said, I’ve been tagged in a few of these videos and I’ve seen it go both ways.
“First off, the kid gets the egg on their head and they’re a little confused, thrown off, find it a little funny.
‘Then they move on. Or they get the egg cracked on their head and they’re really mad about it and freak out,” Sarah explained.
“But when I see those videos, I think, are we as parents so bored and desperate for content?”
Ms Adams continued by questioning the motivations of the parents involved, asking: ‘(Should we) post so loudly on the internet because being part of our world is so demanding?
“And the dopamine hit, and the likes and views, that we’re now cracking eggs on our kids’ heads in 2023 hoping they get an entertaining response that we can post publicly online to entertain strangers?”
It comes a week after ‘TikTok fans’ rampaged down Oxford Street as part of a ‘terrible’ new craze encouraging young people to rob shops.
The Met Police were forced to divert officers on London’s main shopping street and issue a dispersal order to counter the threat of breaking the law.
Large numbers of officers then had to flock to shopping areas in Southend and Bexleyheath in the following days to avoid copycat attacks.
It comes a week after ‘TikTok fans’ rampaged down Oxford Street as part of a ‘terrible’ new craze encouraging young people to rob shops
In response, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warned that anyone taking part would feel “the full force of the law.”
He said, “Criminal damage, criminal behavior is unacceptable. I fully support the police in bringing these people to justice.
“I want anyone who thinks about it, who sees something like this, to know that they’re going to be faced with the full force of the law.
“Because that kind of behavior is just unacceptable in our society.”
In June, a mother raised the alarm about another game spreading on social media, the tap out challenge.
This involves holding you in a chokehold to the point of fainting.
In June, a mother raised the alarm about another game spreading on social media, the ‘tap out challenge’
Katy Spence, a mother of two from Boston, Lincolnshire, was taking her son to the park when she saw a group of schoolchildren urging each other to take on the deadly challenge, Lincolnshire Live reported.
She said, “There was a group of about eight and they were loud… Normally I would never say anything to someone else’s child, but when I heard them say that I had to intervene.
“I told them not to play that game, but they didn’t care what I had to say and said, ‘Are you going to stop us?
“They just didn’t see the danger they were putting themselves in. When I told them they could end up in a wheelchair, they just didn’t care.”
And last month it emerged that young women were risking organ damage by following another fad that promotes drinking a toxic cleansing product to relieve joint pain, fight infection and promote weight loss.
Hundreds of clips posted to the social media app TikTok show proponents of the worrying trend mixing an American all-purpose cleaner called Borax with water and drinking it daily.
And on Facebook, users recommend that soaking in a bath containing it can relieve joint and muscle pain.
But Borax, which contains the mineral boron, is toxic even in amounts as small as a quarter teaspoon.