For the past few years, internet challenges such as the knockout game and the ice bucket challenge have made their way into our everyday lives. Each one has the potential for violence and even death as they get more and more dangerous.
The latest online challenge is the “Fire Challenge”. Timiyah Landers, of Detroit, took the “Fire Challenge” and lost. The new fad calls for someone to pour flammable liquid all over their body and light it. Flammable liquid… Set your body on fire? What could possibly go wrong with that? Timiyah is lucky. Her mother was nearby to reach through the flames to remove her burning clothing. She now has second and third-degree burns over 49% of her body.
Of course, Owens is understandably upset by the trend toward these dangerous stunts. “When they look on YouTube, they see, ‘Oh okay, wow, I want to try that, the outcome with him was okay,’” she said. “Some kids know their right from their wrong, but they can still be curious to try something, to say that they tried it.”
Addressing sites like YouTube that host such videos, she continued: “They need to delete this mess. It should be censored. That’s nothing that a kid should come across. I could have lost my baby; by the grace of God she’s alive. If I wasn’t home, I would have walked into my baby dead.”
A GoFundMe page has been launched to help cover Landers’ medical costs.
The ironic thing is, while conservatives are being censored by the social networks, this kind of thing is shown freely on the internet. Inspiring other kids to do the same dangerous stunts.