Police departments around the country are reporting an upsurge in kids creating problems for themselves and others as they follow social media challenges.
One of the challenges is not new, but making a comeback. Police in Fleetwood, Pennsylvania, west of Allentown, posted about the TikTok “door knock” or “door kick” challenge that “encourages kids and teens to record themselves doing just that; knocking on and/or kicking random doors, usually late at night.”
It’s a knock-off of sorts of a decades-old prank where kids would ring a doorbell and run. This new approach, however, is much more troublesome according to the department. Young people who attempt this door-kicking challenge could “be seriously hurt or even killed by someone who believes, especially in the middle of the night, that their residence is being broken into and ultimately determines there is an imminent threat to life and property.”
Police in Byesville, Ohio, a small town about 70 miles east of Columbus, reported a series of cases recently of “doors being kicked in on homes.” The department connected the incidents directly to social media challenges. Similar to the report from the Fleetwood department, police in that town warn that homeowners may react to someone kicking in a door as an intrusion and take serious action to protect themselves. The department is telling perpetrators to turn themselves in since some home security systems captured images of those involved. “This is no joke; you are intruding on someone's home, and it could end badly for you.”
Another reverberating social media challenge young people are attracted to is called “UrbanEx.” The New York Post reported that it involves enticing young people to go exploring inside abandoned structures.
A constable’s office in the Houston, Texas metropolitan area posted about the arrests of three 18-year-olds for breaking into the site of the closed NRG (Houston) Astrodome, which has been closed since 2009. The office posted that “Sneaking into closed old historic buildings is dangerous. You are taking a risk for yourself and first responders, and it is against the law.”
A Facebook group called Parenting in a Tech World has over 600,000 members who share information about “apps, trends, online-safety” and resurging or brand new things young people are enticed to do, but probably shouldn’t.
Jim Mishler ✉
Jim Mishler, a seasoned reporter, anchor and news director, has decades of experience covering crime, politics and environmental issues.
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