Social media has become more popular than the internet itself, despite running on top of it.
One of the very few that managed to reach the stratosphere of the industry, is TikTok, the ByteDance-owned company from China that is increasingly popular among youngsters.
Because of the demography, users of TikTok that are mostly young, tend to follow things without hesitation. And that includes following a trend, in order to become the trend.
And particularly on the social media platform, a "challenge" is a term used to refer to videos in which users record themselves performing an action and then dare others to do the same.
Those who attempt, or dare to try to do the challenge, can often become part of the internet sensation, and gain fame.
Among the many challenges the internet has provided, most are meant for fun. However, some can be dangerous.
And among the most dangerous TikTok challenges, include the 'Skull Breaking Challenge'.
While the activity isn't as 'scary' as how the name tries to suggest, the challenge is indeed very dangerous.
The skullbreaker craze that emerged on video sharing app TikTok, involves three people standing side-by-side tricking the middle person into jumping and having their legs kicked from underneath them.
This attempt will make the middle person lose balance and fall, and potentially hitting his/her head first to the ground.
And again, just like many challenges that spread on the platform before it, the original video went viral.
Since the worst that happened at first were minor injuries, things looked fun. More daring teens started replicating the risky act.
All that until the first death was recorded.
One of the most publicized, was the incident that happened to Emanuela Medeiros.
The 16-year-old teen from Brazil lost her life on 11 November 2019 because of this Skull Breaker Challenge.
Emanuela was at school at the Antônio Fagundes Municipal School in Mossoró. During the act, she fell and her head hit the ground after two of her classmates attempted the Skull Breaker challenge (also known as the rasteira challenge, and #skullbreakerchallenge) on her.
Unlike most Skull Breaker Challenge before this, Emanuela didn't respond after she fell.
She was unconscious.
Realizing this, the school took her to the Regional Hospital Tarcisio Maia, in the Aeroporto District.
She died a while later.
Emanuela was not the only person who died because of this challenge, and as more days past, more people were reported injured because of this challenge.
TikTok initially refused to ban videos on the Skull Breaker Challenge, until more cases happened, and more complaints came in, many from parents.
Beside death, attempting this challenge could make the challenger suffer forceful trauma to the head and neck area, causing anything from bruising, neck strain, concussion to hematoma, fractures, to a intracranial haemorrhage, paralysis, and permanent brain damage.
It may seem like a prank done by youngsters with their friends, when in fact, it is deadly.
TikTok said it would remove such content from its platform, and updated a post at its newsroom, saying that:
