Nowadays, there are many different viral challenges from the Kylie Jenner lip challenge to the tide pods challenge.
Now, there is another challenge parents need to worry about. The so-called “hot water challenge” involves drinking boiling water or pouring it on a friend.
It’s already killed a child in Florida.
And it left an Indianapolis teen with skin peeling off his body.
He can joke now, but 15-year-old Kyland Clark is still wearing the scars of a dangerous internet challenge gone wrong.
“The situation is here, so you can`t like really just not deal with it,” Clark said.
Kyland says last week he and his friend were looking up the hot water challenge on YouTube.
When he fell asleep, he says his friend heated up some water and poured it on him.
It was supposed to be a joke.
“When I came to my senses, the water got hot and I just got up and ripped my shirt off,” Clark said.
Kyland ran to a bathroom to try and escape the pain.
“And then, like, I looked down at my chest, and my skin just fell off my chest, and then I went and I looked in a mirror and then I had skin falling off right here and on my face,” Clark said.
When the damage was done, Kyland suffered second-degree burns on his back, chest, and face, putting him in the hospital for a week.
It was one of his mother, Andrea`s, worst nightmares.
“To see my baby, all burnt up like that, it was heart-breaking,” Andrea said.
Doctors say they`re starting to see more of these so-called internet challenges land people in the emergency room.
“And it’s suggesting to people that they can try it and they won’t be hurt, but they will be. I can guarantee it,” Methodist Hospital EMS Director Dr. Ed Barktus said.
In the case of the hot water challenge, Dr. Bartkus says its possible to end up with permanent disfigurement due to burns.
Or, if someone swallows the hot water, burns to the airway could cause them to close, resulting in death.
“If your friends are telling you to do this, they are not good friends,” Bartkus said.
The thoughts are echoed by Kyland and Andrea, who say, for now, they`re just glad Kyland is on the road to recovery.
“It could have been worse,” Andrea said. “My son could have died.”
“There`s a limit to what you should do in a challenge and what you shouldn`t do,” Kyland said. “Don`t take it overboard.”
Kyland’s doctors say he should heal.
They say his pigment should be back to normal in a few months.