Lifestyle

Make Sure Your Child Doesn’t Fall for the ‘Salt and Ice Challenge’

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Tony Maples Photography

 

The “salt and ice challenge” made its way through YouTube about four years ago, but what’s old becomes new again, and kids are taking interest in the “challenge” once again. The goal is to hold ice on top of salt on the skin for as long as possible. The act is painful, but not unbearable. Unfortunately, the result is damaged skin.

When ice and salt meet skin, the salt’s temperature drops to roughly 1.4 Fahrenheit, and the skin enters the first stages of frostbite, Fox 32 explains. Participants are left with angry skin that could blister and peel.

Reportedly, the fad is currently popular in the United Kingdom. “The rise of social media has contributed to increasing peer pressure among children. This ‘craze’ [salt and ice challenge] is another clear example of the risks,” says National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in the U.K.

Dawn Spragg, the founder of the Teen Action & Support Center, told Today that kids don’t fully understand the risks involved due to the speed of “sharing” the content. “It doesn’t have time to die down or be deemed dangerous. Everyone sees or hears about it at the same time,” she said.