'Fire challenge' hunting teenagers worldwide, burns 49 pct of teen girl's body

The challenge takes on children to deliberately use rubbing alcohol or other flammable liquids and set themselves on fire. They then post the stunt on social media.

The "fire challenge" is all over the social media and parents are worried about their children accepting it after a girl was nearly killed by it.

As told to 13 Action News' sister station WXYZ, the mother of 12-year-old daughter Timiyah Landers, Brandi Owens warns about the fire challenge to other parents as she thought that she was going to lose her child to it.

The challenge takes on children to deliberately use rubbing alcohol or other flammable liquids and set themselves on fire. They then post the stunt on social media.

Timiyah suffered from burns over 49 percent of her body.

Doctor Daliah Wachs who is a professor at Touro University says about this challenge to be one of the most dangerous trends ever seen and its soaring higher day by day.

He thinks that the acceptors of the challenge must have a shower or a bathtub in the premises of their stunt so that they can submerge themselves in case of a blazing fire or to simply save their skin from potent burns.

According to a 2017 Child Mind Institute report, challenges like these are on the rise because of the effect of social media on teen brains, where we all know teenage to be the most vulnerable time period in a person's life.

Surveys reveal that around 90 per cent of people between the age group of 16-14 years has a smartphone which facilitates the social media to grow on their brains seamlessly.

The concept of the "reward centre" which is associated with garnering more and more likes in social media associated with pictures and videos helps us understand as to why teens and young adults involve themselves in such bizarre activities.

The whole idea of acceptance among the social media community stresses the youth to practise activities like these just to show that they are "cool" as well.

Dr Wachs explains that adolescent education has become very important to teach our youth that TV and social media contents are not the exact versions of real life but a filtered one and they should further learn to differentiate them.