Are young people today more reckless… Or just plain stupid?

Young people often think they’re bulletproof, and plenty of us made foolish mistakes in our youth. These latest incidences take the plate though! Young people are now setting themselves on fire for the internet’s attention, and playing dangerous pranks which have left older people hospitalised.

“The fire challenge” is a new social media crazy where young people deliberately set themselves alight and post the results online. An 11-year-old British boy recently partook in the fire challenge, and now needs skin grafts to repair severe burns on his back.

Thousands of videos online feature mostly teenagers – who pour baby oil, nail polish remover and other flammable liquids on themselves before lighting a flame. The “challenge” is getting to water quickly enough, before the flames do serious physical damage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpJ7q2gEj6E

Meanwhile in Manchester, a 79-year-old grandmother has been left with broken arms after two teenage girls pulled a dangerous shopping centre prank. The pensioner went “flying” from atop a moving escalator, when the unidentified girls pressed the emergency stop button.

The pensioner also needed 15 stitches to her forehead, and suffered multiple cuts and bruises. Detectives have described the incident as a “prank gone wrong”, but are yet to identify the teenagers involved.

This is cold comfort for the pensioner’s daughter, who wrote on Facebook: “Please find some Christmas spirit and help me find the people that did this to my mum”. Indeed, the teenagers should have known better.

Will young people do anything for attention these days? Is the internet to blame for crazes like “the fire challenge”? Do you believe that enough respect is being instilled in today’s youth?