New internet challenge, '48-Hours Missing,' encourages kids to go missing for 48 hours

[doodles1211]

Colour me skeptical. Usually when the media reports 'challenges' like this, they don't really exist. It's a case of one or two teens doing something dumb and then someone on social media making up that they did it because of some 'challenge' that's been going around and that loads of kids have done it. In reality, it's usually the case that these kids are unrelated and did something stupid for different reasons, and that no such challenge exists. And the media reporting on the challenge only makes it more well known, and only then do kids end up actually doing the challenge.

A more serious example would be the 'Blue Whale challenge' in Russia. It was reported that there was an internet challenge that involved 100 tasks, one a day, which ended with suicide. But when BBC reporters investigated further, they found that there was no such challenge and that the hundreds of young suicides that had been attributed to it were just... unrelated suicides.

The lack of any specific examples in these media reports leads me to think that it's probably not really a thing. I remember when I was a bit younger (I'm 23 now) and my dad would occasionally annoy me with 'you're not thinking of doing the X challenge are you' and I'd have to explain that no, I wasn't, because nobody was.

I agree. Some of these "challenges" remind me of the things we heard of like.. Don't drive with your headlights on in the daytime. People are being chased down and killed by those going through gang initiations. As, they single out those with their headlights on as their next victim...

But most of these "Gang initiations" were just hoaxes. I know there were cases on the news and sm about the Tide pods and the kids hiding in the stores overnight. I think that anyone doing this challenge would be hard to actually point to as the "48 hr challenge" because they would typically be treated as a runaway most likely, anyway.

 

[JerseyGirl]

’48 hour Missing Challenge’ encourages teens to fake disappearance

 

[PommyMommy]

https://www.wbtw.com/news/grand-str...t-mean-they-are-safe-says-advocate/1802473855
MYRTLE BEACH, SC - The Horry County Police Department is frequently posting on their social media pages about missing or runaway teens.

One case in particular got attention this week after a young man posted on his own missing persons post. Some commenting on the post thought he might be participating in the "48 hour challenge" where teens are daring each other to go missing.

Lt. Mark Bonner with the Horry County Police Department, says regardless they had multiple officers searching for him.

[...]

Tina Pearson spends her days making calls and scrolling through social media posts to track down missing teens. She's part of a national non-profit organization called Center For Search and Investigations.

"To me, there should never be a term runaway, every child, every person, is missing for a reason, missing and endangered they are gone for a reason," said Pearson. "We've had several cases in the last week or so that have not been part of the 48 hour challenge."

Pearson says but just because a missing teen is posting on social media does not mean they are safe.

"Just because they are responding on social media does not mean it's that child," said Pearson.