Introduction:
The emerging phenomenon of social media challenges, encourages users to participate and share videos attempting often dangerous challenges.
Growing accessibility and younger audience engagement can subject children to accidental injuries, intensified by peer pressure and the expansion of social media. This is poorly documented in medical literature.
Aim:
To explore the incidence of burns related to social media platforms in our service, and provide information to understand and attempt to reduce the incidence of similar injuries.
Method:
This study investigated the incidence of paediatric burns from January 2020 to April 2025 which explicitly stated social media challenges as an injury mechanism. Data was collected retrospectively from electronic patient records including patient demographic, burn injuries and subsequent management.
Results:
13 patients were identified as having sustaining burns as a result of attempting an internet challenge (2020-2025). The mean age was 12.4 years (9-15 years) with a 2:1 female to male ratio. 31% were superficial, 31% superficial partial thickness, 23% deep partial thickness and 15% full thickness. Scalds (61.5%) were the most common mechanism of injury, followed by cold burns (30.8%), and contact burns (7.7%). All burn accidents were associated with TikTok challenges rather than other social media platforms. 15% required a full thickness skin graft. 30% of the children were neurodivergent.
Conclusion:
Social media platforms can expose children to dangerous content, compounded by peer pressure and the desire to achieve viral videos. The influence of social media is likely under-represented as a factor in paediatric burns. Despite TikTok challenges accounting for a small fraction of paediatric burns, early recognition of burns aetiology and social media trends may allow preventative measures and education to be undertaken, including via the same social media platforms, by the wider burns community.