Internet Threat Could Lead To Missing Teens in Montana
This is a note to parents of teens to warn them about the latest internet challenge. The "48 Hour Challenge" encourages teens to disappear for 48 hours in hopes they may have their pics posted as a missing person on social media.
I am writing about this not to promote it, but as a legitimate warning to parents to talk to your kids and other parents about this and other such challenges they will encounter in the future. As a 43 year old, this sounds ridiculous to me, but so did the Tide Pod challenge and we see how big that was able to get.
This 48 Hour Challenge prank is not only designed to put parents, family and friends through one of their worst nightmares, but also uses the same amount of resources that an actual disappearance use. In other words, if someone participates in this, they are not only inflicting psychological pain on their loved ones, but they are potentially taking away resources from someone in real danger.
It's tough to both warn people about the latest foolish challenge on the internet and not help fuel the fire at the same time, but that's what I'm hoping to do. Even if your kids aren't the type to take part in something like this, they very well know someone who might not be so sensible or have the parental guidance in their life to know better. This started in Albuquerque and has already had too many participants.