What Is 'Deodorant Challenge'? Teen Suffers Severe Burns In 'Dangerous' Craze

A new craze, called the "deodorant challenge" has been sweeping schools in the U.K. and has left a teenager with severe burns. In a Facebook post over the weekend, a mother warned parents about the "dangerous" and "hazardous" game teenagers are getting involved in.

The challenge involves spraying deodorant onto a part of a person's bare skin for as long as possible — something that has left 15-year-old girl Ellie with second-degree burns.

"I seldom rarely do this, but on this occasion, I would like this post spread wide and far.....For any parents who have children, please, please sit them down and show them these pictures.....These are the damaging results of something known as 'The Deodorant Challenge' which is currently doing the rounds in Yate and literally involves spraying deodorant on to someone else for as long as possible.....It's that simple and results in severe secondary burns. The pictures below are that of my Year 10 daughter's arm three weeks on which may still as yet require a skin graft...," Ellie's mother Jamie Prescott wrote on Facebook along with photos of her daughter's burn.

Prescott spoke to local media Somerset Live, and said the incident took place on April 18 but she did not notice the injury until the following day when it started blistering. She also said the challenge took place at a nearby park where her daughter was with some friends.

“Apparently, when they asked her to put out her arm she did it, but she had no idea of the consequences and hadn’t even heard of the Deodorant Challenge before that point," she said. “Since then other children have asked her what is wrong with her arm, and when she has told them, they have then replied that they have also had it done to them and showed her their scars.”

This is not the first time parents have been concerned about some challenge that has either taken place in school or gone viral on social media. There were several other such dangerous challenges including the “Blue Whale Challenge,” the “Tide Pod Challenge” and the “Condom-snorting Challenge.”

These increasingly popular trends put young people at risk of several hazards, raising concerns among parents. In February, parents were concerned about the "Condom-snorting challenge" in which a person takes an unwrapped condom and inhales it through one nostril and pulls it out through the throat. After videos of the challenge were uploaded on social media, several youngsters started trying the act risking choking themselves.

In January, the Tide Pod Challenge gained popularity after teenagers started uploading videos of themselves stuffing their mouth with detergent pods and biting into them or cooking with them. The American Association of Poison Control Centers issued warnings about the hazardous effects of consuming the detergent pods.

The most terrifying of the challenges was the "Blue Whale Challenge" in which teenagers participated in a "suicide game" that at the end resulted with the participant taking one's own life. According to reports, more than 100 teenagers killed themselves as part of the Blue Whale Challenge.