The deadly side of viral challenges: a case in Spain raises alarm bells

A viral challenge shared among teenagers nearly ended in tragedy in the Valencian Community of Spain, where a minor had to be admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) after suffering severe poisoning from taking several pills of a strong medication that had not been prescribed.

The case, recently presented at the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP) congress, has raised alarm among doctors, psychologists, and educators, who warn about the rise of extreme practices among young people on social media and the rise of viral challenges that are going from entertainment to life-threatening.

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The challenge, according to the newspaper El País, was for "the bravest" person to ingest the largest amount of the most powerful medication available at home. The affected teenager took a drug prescribed for a neurological condition, which caused a severe loss of consciousness, followed by a domestic accident that led a relative to discover the situation and rush him to a medical center.

The minor was initially treated in a hospital, where he alternated between episodes of stupor and agitation, symptoms consistent with drug poisoning. Given the lack of results in the initial analyses of common substances, doctors performed more sensitive tests that confirmed elevated levels of the drug in question.

The young man later confessed that he had participated in a shared challenge with friends, in which they competed to identify the strongest drugs used by their parents and then ingest them without medical supervision.

The case was documented by Drs. María Sinisterra and Victoria Ordoño, from the Pediatrics Department at Manises Hospital, who highlighted the challenge from a clinical and social perspective. They stated, "These are very young patients who present with clinical conditions that can be very serious and even life-threatening."

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The professionals emphasized the need for medical teams to be prepared for these types of situations, which require an immediate response and subsequent follow-up from a multidisciplinary perspective.

The young man is currently under observation in a child and adolescent psychiatric unit and receiving support from social workers. According to the clinical report, he has shown self-criticism regarding what happened and has not relapsed into risky behaviors. However, the El País report highlights that the case highlights the dangers posed by certain viral challenges, which are increasingly common among adolescents exposed to social media without filters or adult support.

A repeated case

It's worth noting that the phenomenon isn't new, but its scope has changed radically. Joaquín González-Cabrera, a researcher at the Institute for Knowledge Transfer and Research at the International University of La Rioja, noted that challenges have always been part of group rituals in adolescence, but the difference today is that they have gone viral. "Before, this was limited to groups. Now, it's becoming widespread and tends to be more extreme, because there will always be someone who takes it a little further," he stated, while highlighting that the study "Impact of Technology on Adolescence," conducted by UNICEF with 50,000 young people in Spain, showed that 98.5% of high school students are registered on at least one social network and that 83.5% have accounts on three or more platforms.

Furthermore, 21.6% go online after midnight almost every day, and 58.4% take their cell phone into their bedroom at night. The case of the young man from Valencia adds to other tragic events linked to digital challenges, such as subway surfing in New York, which left 11 teenagers dead, or the Superman Challenge on TikTok, which involves throwing a young man into the air in a flying position.