A teen who was almost left paralysed after attempting an online challenge has issued a warning to other youngsters. Sarah Platt, 16, was joking around with pals when they egged her on to try the “skull breaker” challenge.
Once a TikTok craze, the challenge sees two people kick the legs from underneath a person so they land on their head. Sarah says she felt peer pressure to attempt the dangerous act after watching two of her friends carry it out and walk away unscathed.
Unlike her friends, the schoolgirl had to be rushed to hospital on a spinal board after losing feeling in her right leg after she landed on her neck. According to the Mirror, medics found she had broken three bones in her neck and her T5 vertebrae.
She said: “It was just a trend that was around at the time. We thought making the TikTok would be fun and funny but I didn’t really want to take part because I just didn’t want to get hurt. But it was a little bit of peer pressure.”
Now 18 and thankfully back on her feet, Sarah still suffers complications developing postural tachycardia syndrome, which causes her to faint. Urging others not to try the challenges, she added: “I want to try and make people more aware not to do it, because it could end in someone getting hurt.”
Mum Jane Platt, from Banbury, added: “We were one of the lucky ones. She’s alive and walking – thank god – but we are obviously having to deal with something else as a result.” Online safety expert John Staines, a former police officer, speaks to children as young as six who have seen dangerous challenges online.
He said: “Parents think TikTok is full of happy dances and don’t realise there is a darker side. People blame TikTok but they have got billions of users and they can’t possibly watch all videos. Even the best algorithms in the world couldn’t do that.
“With all social media platforms the parent needs to be part of the journey. And the child must be able to speak to the parents.”
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