Don't try this at home

They started as memes and dares and then quickly turned dangerous. Here's what we learned from 10 internet trends that went horribly wrong

- Tanisha Saxena [e-mail]

1 Laundry isn't lunch.

The Tide Pod Challenge started as a joke. Those laundry pods really looked “too delicious to resist”. Then American teenagers actually bit into them in 2018. The result: Poison control hotlines were flooded, ERs were swamped with cases of chemical burns, seizures, and respiratory failure. More than 12,000 cases of exposure were logged. Tide pivoted with opaque packaging, bittering agents, and a PSA from NFL star Rob Gronkowski. Utterly foolish.

2 Leave cinnamon alone.

In the centuries gone by, White men would colonise and pillage for cinnamon. Now they film themselves as they attempt to eat the powdered stuff by the spoonful. The problem? Cinnamon isn't water-soluble. Saliva can't break it down, leaving daredevils sputtering. It's not just teens. In July, an elderly man filmed himself taking up the challenge. Seconds later, he was coughing and choking. The dare has been around since the early 2010s.

3 Leave stunts to the movies.

The Bird Box Challenge was inspired by the 2018 movie and got participants to go through the world blindfolded. So far, so silly. People tried to cook, walk, climb stairs blindfolded. Then, one teen in Utah tried driving blindfolded and crashed her car. In the UK, a man perched on railway tracks for views. YouTube and authorities rushed to rein in the frenzy.