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Eraser Challenge: Social Media Craze Posing Risk to Children Doing the Dare [VIDEO]

By Alleah Kiamco | Update Date: Mar 17, 2017 11:22 AM EDT

Awareness for parents and educators are circulating online regarding the Eraser Challenge. This challenge has been around for years already but is now gaining new fame for the photos swarming on social media with kids and schoolchildren acquiring abrasions and cuts from doing the game.

In an article of the Today, East Iredell Middle School in Statesville, North Carolina, informed and made a public warning to parents about this new trend because several students that took part in the dare have gotten hurt.

The dare is all about children rubbing eraser on their arm while saying something. A new version of the game's rules is rubbing the eraser fast and hard while reciting the alphabet. The ultimate goal is to see how long the participants of the game can last. The kids then compare their wounds and some even post videos of them doing the dare on social media platforms.

A Seattle pediatrician, writing in the Seattle Mama Doc blog, Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson said that she is not surprised on why children are engaging in this kind of self-harm challenge. She said that children are in the stages of wanting to belong and their social dynamics are being brought in this. Kids want attention and they try to prove their strength which is why this challenge sells out to school kids, the ABC News said.

Eraser burns pose dangers because the end of a dirty eraser rubbed into the skin until it is broken and raw might lead to severe skin infections and staph. The skin is not at all clean and it is swarmed with bacteria. When it opens and is exposed with another dirty object, bacteria may crawl and infect the body that would create a scab and a long-term remembrance of the dare- a profoundly visible scar.

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