Recently kids have found a new way to be dumb:  first it was the cinnamon challenge, then the bath salt challenge, and now they thought of the Tide Pod challenge. People (mostly teenagers) have been biting into these laundry detergent packages, some going so far as put them on a frying pan, then cook and eat them. A thread of videos with the title “Tide Pod Challenge” have been shared to Youtube.

Before laundry detergent came out with the pods, they issued a warning to parents so they would watch and make sure that their children would not swallow any of the pods. According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, there were more than 12,299 reported exposures to highly concentrated laundry detergent pods in 2017.  Youtube saw how serious this was and started taking this into their own hands, deleting any kind of videos like that and issuing consequences would happen to the Youtuber that is publishing online.  Last year U.S. poison control centers received reports of 10,500 children younger than 5 who were exposed to the Tide Pods. The same year about 220 teens were exposed and about 25 percent of those cases were on purpose according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers. 

Since this Tide Pod challenge has started, local stores have been taking Tide Pods off the shelf or they put them in a secure plastic box, which only an employee could unlock with a key. Parents around the world cannot stress enough about how dangerous this is and how serious it is.