11 February 2021
On February 11, 2021, we held a workshop as part of the celebration of Safer Internet Day and the STEM campaign 2021.
The theme of the event is the TikTok “Blackout” challenge. Recent tragic events related to this challenge have shaken the world. In just a few days, several children aged 10 and 11 died as a result of this challenge.
The aim of the workshop is to acquaint students with the dangers of such challenges on social networks.
Students from Bosnia and Herzegovina prepared a presentation related to this tragic challenge. The presentation shows the definition of challenges, videos, and newspaper articles that report on events related to the “Blackout” challenge.
The “choking game” is a trend among children and young people. The challenge involves children putting a strap around their neck, tightening it, and recording the act with a smartphone until they faint. Kids watching the footage are funny at first and then get scared if a friend will come back from unconsciousness.
After the presentation, we had a discussion. Students tried to answer the question: “Why are there such challenges, how to prevent them?”
Most students agree that watching and participating in such challenges is a result of the drama, adrenaline, and popularity that virtual video reviews bring. The excitement that students should feel at a sports competition, a well-solved test, and hanging out with friends has been replaced by such challenges.
Psychologists agree that children accept such challenges on social media because of poor risk assessment, and then it turns into a tragedy. The younger the child, the worse the risk assessment and understanding of the consequences. It is a great responsibility of parents to follow on social networks what their children are doing. Parents need to know which apps the child is visiting, what they are watching, and who they are corresponding with. It is necessary to act preventively through education.
We concluded that it was necessary to remove the challenge and punish inappropriate behavior. TikTok has called on all users to report all those participating in the “Blackout” challenge in hopes of preventing its spread.
You can solve the “Blackout” challenge by clicking on the white arrow on the right side of the image and then clicking on “report”.
You can then select the category “Suicide, Self-harm and Dangerous Acts”.
On this topic students from Croatia prepared the task “Design your social network”. Through the task, students are guided by the basic principles of Internet security and netiquette on the Internet.
The workshop was useful and we learned a lot of useful information. The main goal of the workshop is to educate students to recognize dangerous challenges, warn of them and report to parents or teachers.
The workshop was useful and we learned a lot of useful information. The main goal of the workshop is to educate students to recognize such challenges, warn of the dangers of them and report to TikTok, parents or teachers.
Details can be found here: https://app.edu.buncee.com/buncee/6cbe7d30744344ca8097f26daa6d567a
Authors:
Snježana Damjanović, Školski centar fra Martina Nedića, Orašje, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Anita Čorak, Primary school „Dobriša Cesarić“, Osijek, Croatia