TikTok ‘whoosh bottle experiment’ severely burns 12-year-old, Connecticut senator says
Children taking on certain TikTok challenges resulting in harm have made headlines before – and a U.S. senator for Connecticut is once again calling out the social media platform over those safety concerns.
This time, it’s over a challenge called the “whoosh bottle experiment,” which ended up severely burning a 12-year-old boy from East Haven and sending him to the hospital, Sen. Richard Blumenthal said in a Jan. 10 news release calling on TikTok’s CEO “to act.”
The challenge involves igniting alcohol in plastic bottles and the resulting sound, according to the senator’s letter.
It “is among a number of TikTok videos that have resulted in injuries, including a previous trend of drawing shapes in rubbing alcohol and lighting them on fire that injured multiple children.”
Now, if you search for “whoosh bottle experiment” on TikTok, the platform shows a message about recognizing “harmful challenges and hoaxes” that includes further information about dangerous online challenges.
Blumenthal wrote that the platform “has repeatedly failed to remove dangerous videos in the absence of external pressure,” in a letter to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew.
“Until the ‘Whoosh Bottle Experiment’ caused a severe injury, videos associated with the experiment remained active on your platform. This is not the first time TikTok has removed videos and tags only after reports of serious harm.”
The senator’s letter requests the company’s CEO to publicly meet with him alongside state school officials and parents to address how and why “harmful videos” stay on the social media platform and “the steps you are taking to rid TikTok of such dangerous, destructive content.”
A TikTok spokesperson described the “whoosh” challenge as originating as a “school science experiment” that “can be done safely with proper precautions” in a statement sent to WTNH.
“But videos without visible safety measures will be removed from our platform,” the spokesperson continued. “We also work to add caution labels to videos performed in a controlled setting, though they are ineligible for recommendation into people’s For You feeds.”
The 12-year-old boy who was injured on Dec. 28 after the challenge was taken to the Yale Childrens’ Hospital and then the Bridgeport Hospital Burn Center, according to WTNH.
“Take a few minutes to talk to your children about the dangers of playing with ignitable liquids and matches and monitor what they are watching,” said East Haven Deputy Chief Fire Marshal Charles Miller, according to WFSB.
“This experiment when done incorrectly can cause severe burns that can permanently scar an individual.”
A Senate hearing was held on Oct. 26, 2021 involving Blumenthal’s consumer protection, product safety and data security subcommittee where officials for TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat were questioned about what they were doing to protect children online.
“We’re hearing the same stories of harm,” Blumenthal said during the hearing, according to PBS.
Earlier in September 2021, two children in Alaska came away with “life-threatening” burns after doing a TikTok challenge lighting rubbing alcohol aflame on a mirror, McClatchy News previously reported.
“The onus is on TikTok to keep its platform safe for all of its users,” Blumenthal said in his letter.
This story was originally published January 10, 2022 at 6:04 PM with the headline "TikTok ‘whoosh bottle experiment’ severely burns 12-year-old, Connecticut senator says."
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