It may have been almost nine years ago now, but the challenge is still familiar to many: A video of someone pouring a bucket of ice-cold water on themselves, then reading out the names of three friends as they dry themselves off, shivering.
This was 2014’s Ice Bucket Challenge – a viral online challenge that raised US$220 million (S$290 million) for the ALS Association to further research into a cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
However, some challenges may not be entirely positive, and have resulted in physical harm.
Says TikTok content creator Ng Ming Wei: "Many young people find appeal in taking part in challenges because they hope to go viral by riding on trends.
"While many are harmless fun, some challenges have an element of risk to them, and it's important for young people to be able to tell when something is too dangerous."
For Ming Wei, safety takes priority, no matter how fun or popular the challenge is. The 28-year-old and his father, Mr Cedric Ng, are behind the TikTok accounts mingweirocks and daddyming respectively. The duo are known for light-hearted videos of them pranking each other, and have over 30 million followers on TikTok collectively.
“Before taking part in any trends, I would always take a step back to assess the video concept as a whole. If I were to come across trends that perpetuate negativity or harmful actions, I would choose never to engage in them, to avoid promoting such dangerous acts to my viewers,” he adds.
Both Ngs play a key role in promoting TikTok’s #thinkb4youdo campaign that is supported by the Media Literacy Council. It is aimed at encouraging TikTok community members to be mindful of their physical safety by learning how to identify potentially harmful challenges.
“Being a part of the #thinkb4youdo campaign gave me the opportunity to spread a positive message through my style of content. I’ve always wanted to use my platform to spread more positive messages, and if my participation in the campaign had helped prevent at least one person from making rash and wrong decisions, then I am beyond elated,” Ming Wei shares.
“As a dad, I am naturally protective not just towards my children, but also other youths on the platform. While I’m unable to warn all of them to be more wary, taking part in the #thinkb4youdo campaign felt like a good step to begin with. It feels almost like second nature to remind my audience – don’t forget to #thinkb4youdo anything, be it online or offline,” says Mr Cedric Ng.
“Community members can create a safe community by choosing to withhold sharing potentially dangerous and harmful content, and to participate in trends that will spread positivity instead,” adds Ming Wei.
Creating a safer space for all
In order to better understand how young community members interact with potentially harmful online content like challenges and hoaxes, TikTok embarked on a survey of over 10,000 teens, teachers and parents from 10 countries, ranging from Vietnam to Mexico.
The findings, reviewed by a panel of 12 leading youth safety experts from all over the world, revealed that teenagers use several means of risk assessment before attempting challenges – including reading comments, discussing with friends, and watching others try the said challenges beforehand.
Even so, almost half of the youths surveyed want more information and guidance from parents and authority figures on how to assess potential risks.
At the same time, a major finding of the report was that teens, educators and parents all need better education about challenges and hoaxes.
These findings have been used to inform revisions to TikTok’s existing policies and safety measures.
In order to keep parents better informed about potentially harmful content, as well as make them more comfortable with broaching said subject with their teenagers, TikTok has worked with behavioural scientists and child psychologists to compile a new, hoax- and challenge-specific resource for its Safety Center.
The platform has also been proactively helping community members identify harmful online challenges by putting content warning tags on videos that have been flagged by other community members as being potentially unsafe or harmful.
Furthermore, if a stunt in a video is being performed by a professional, the video will similarly indicate as much, and advise viewers not to replicate it.
These notices will show up on the videos’ thumbnails, as well as be overlaid on the video itself when played back.
Additionally, to encourage community members to assess the safety of a challenge before taking part in it, TikTok also introduced its own set of steps, known as the Stop-Think-Decide-Act framework.
According to the framework, community members should first stop and consider whether a challenge is harmful or even real to begin with – and if so, they should choose not to engage.
In its Safety Center, a repository of online safety and digital wellness resources, TikTok prompts community members to think by running through a list of questions to ask themselves, and decide if the challenge is worth participating in.
These include questions like whether taking on a challenge will result in property damage, if a certain challenge respects another person’s individual boundaries and rights, and what the people involved in a challenge have done to minimise risk to themselves and others.
The final step of the framework is to act. If the community member comes to the conclusion that a challenge is harmful to others, they can report it to TikTok by long pressing on the video, selecting “Report” and clicking on the “Dangerous acts and challenges” category.
Parents have a pivotal role to play
As young community members seek support from authority figures about navigating potentially harmful content, it is healthy to maintain an open dialogue with them about what they see online.
“While youths may not be able to identify the risks or potentially harmful effects of certain trends, sharing their feelings about certain trends with others could help identify and prevent further spreading of harmful content,” shares Ming Wei.
Even though the elder Ng’s children are all adults, it doesn’t shake the innate need to protect his children, whether it’s online or off. “As a parent, I’ll always have that protective side to me,” he says.
He encourages parents to have open conversations about the type of content their kids are consuming online, without prying and being invasive.
“For me, asking questions like ‘Have you seen anything interesting on TikTok recently?’ or ‘What are some fun trends going around on TikTok now?’ helped to spark conversations with my kids, and keeps me updated on the content they are exposed to online.”
Shares Ming Wei: “I appreciate being able to have open and transparent conversations with my father about the content we put online. Our relationship has strengthened as we learn and grow together not only as father and son, but also as creators. Our goals online are similar, and having these goals aligned makes the working process much more enjoyable for both of us.”
TikTok is working towards creating a welcoming environment where everyone feels safe and comfortable. Visit TikTok’s Digital Wellness Hub to find out more about tools that can help enhance you and your teen’s experience on the platform.
