Lethal Trends

Life-Threatening Social Media Challenges Are on the Rise - New AI-Powered Service Helps Parents Stay Informed

Dangerous social media trends have become more common among young people, and parents often feel they are alone with the issue. Finnish Mannerheim League for Child Welfare (MLL) has established a warning service for dangerous social media challenges, which identifies and alerts about locally emerging social media challenges via text message. The service is dedicated to the memory of Niilo Kaste, a victim of a social media challenge.

According to a recent report by the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare (MLL), the majority of surveyed children and teenagers in Finland have encountered dangerous social media challenges.* These challenges often appear as play and fun, making it difficult for children to recognize them as harmful or even deadly. MLL's new service alerts parents about locally spreading challenges so that no one has to hear about them before it’s too late.

The Lethal Trends warning service is a free platform for parents where they can alert of a locally trending challenge, browse trending challenges on a live map, and register for local text message notifications that warn about challenges spreading in real time. The alerts from the warning service help parents distinguish potential risks and make informed decisions about their children's media use.

“Young people in particular are vulnerable to viral social media challenges. While it is important for parents to be aware of their children's media landscape, it is impossible to know all the time what kind of content your child is spending time with. Our service allows parents to share information about harmful and dangerous social media challenges and trends”, says Paula Aalto, MLL's Head of School Cooperation and Digital Youth Work.

She believes that as long as service providers and legislation do not adequately protect children in digital environments, parents must make efforts to ensure that both children and adults have enough information at their disposal. "Our goal is that social media challenges would no longer endanger the life of any child or young person", Aalto says.

In Memory of Niilo, a Victim of a Social Media Challenge

The adverse effects of a social media challenge became a painful reality for Jonna Penttilä. A social media challenge led Jonna’s son Niilo to climb onto the roof of an abandoned train, where he encountered a lethal electric shock from a power line. Niilo was a cheerful and active young person, known as the entertainer of the group. At the time of the events, he was completing his second-year in building technology studies. Jonna had a close relationship with her son and described them as a good team.

"I am deeply touched that Niilo's memory can help protect young people from dangerous social media challenges. I wish that such a service had been available earlier to support parents. I hope that in the future, no parent will have to find themselves in the same situation," says Penttilä, Niilo's mother.