- Several parents of kids hospitalized for ingesting magnets have blamed a TikTok trend.
- In May, the UK’s National Health Service called for the ban of magnets to address the alleged trend.
- TikTok stated that there is no evidence of the trend. Insider couldn’t find clips on this platform.
Many parents have claimed that their children were injured by swallowing tiny magnets. However, there is very little evidence linking the phenomenon to TikTok.
The purported TikTok challenge involves video creators placing magnetic balls at the top and bottom of their mouths so that they pull toward each other and look like fake tongue piercings, according to Today and other outlets.
The United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS), which did not respond to a request for comment, called to ban tiny magnetic balls in a May statement on its website. The UK health agency wrote that they were being used in a “potentially life-threatening TikTok trend.”
Katrina Phillips, head of the United Kingdom’s Child Accident Prevention Trust, said in the NHS statement that if swallowed, these magnets can stick together and cut off blood supply, which can cause tissue to die and be life-threatening.
TikTok claims that there’s no significant TikTok trend in which people put magnetic balls in their mouths.
A TikTok spokesperson told Insider in a statement that they could not find “evidence” of the trend existing on the app and said content that “encourages, promotes, or glorifies behavior that might lead to injury” is prohibited.
Insider searched for “TikTok magnet challenge,” “TikTok magnet piercings,” and other variations of the alleged trend, but was unable to find any videos besides TikToks that warned other people not to place magnets in their mouth.
A Fox News article from June embedded a TikTok video which they said garnered over 20,000 views and showed someone with magnets stuck to the top of their lip, but the TikTok is no longer available to watch.
Dyan Hes, a New York City pediatrician, told Insider that magnetic balls have been “wreaking havoc” on children’s health for years.
Many outlets and parents have called it a TikTok trend
Despite the apparent lack of evidence, several parents have claimed in news reports that their children were inspired to put magnets into their mouths because of a TikTok craze.
A mother of an 11-year-old who was hospitalized in May for swallowing five magnetic balls blamed a “TikTok craze,” the Daily Mail reported. A mother of a 6-year-old who was hospitalized in September after ingesting 23 magnets told the BBC that her daughter was trying to imitate tongue piercings she had seen in TikTok videos.
A mother of a 9-year old son who had to have major surgery in September had to also blame TikTok. She said that her son did not have a TikTok profile, but had seen videos posted from the platform.
The magnet-swallowing trend has existed for years
The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), which tracks the safety of consumer products, warned against children and teens placing magnetic balls in their mouths to make fake piercings in a report in 2012 — years before TikTok existed.
“Small magnet balls have been wreaking havoc on the health of children for years,” Insider heard from Hes, the pediatrician.
The rumours surrounding the alleged magnet trend are similar to other social media trends that stir fear online, but which aren’t really connected with mainstream social media platforms.
There was also the “blackout challenge,” which involved people choking themselves until they passed out for a few seconds. Police said that the TikTok trend led to the death of a child in July. Although the challenge was genuine, there was no evidence that it was particularly popular on this platform.
Similarly, the “Momo Challenge,” which involved a creepy meme that many people thought was popping up across the internet and promoting child suicide. The meme was widely shared in 2018, but no evidence has been found that it ever appeared on social media.
There have been dangerous trends linked to TikTok
Even with the history of fake trends online, TikTok does have a history of spawning potentially harmful trends, like the recent milk crate challenge in August where people would try to climb up a tall stack of flimsy milk crates. Insider was told by an expert that participants could sustain life-threatening injuries.
Insider was also told by a doctor that TikTok creators put garlic in their nostrils to relieve congestion. This could, he said, have the opposite effect and cause irritation.
However, the evidence against this trend is not strong enough to suggest that TikTok helped promote a trend in which people put magnets into their mouths.
More stories are available from Insider’s Digital Culture Desk.