What is the Chromebook Challenge? Schools alert parents of dangerous social media trend

Yahoo

14-05-2025

The Brief
In a dangerous new TikTok trend, kids are using a special technique to set their Chromebooks on fire and posting the act in efforts to go viral.
Many schools, including one in Medford Township, have sent out letters to parents notifying them of the 'Chromebook Challenge.'
MEDFORD TWP., NJ - School leaders are sounding the alarm about a dangerous TikTok trend.
The latest Chromebook craze has local school districts working to get out ahead of it to prevent it from spreading.
What we know
Videos are surfacing online of students destroying their school-issued Chromebooks, and in some cases, causing fires in the process.
Medford Township is just one area where school officials sent out a notice warning parents about the Chromebook Challenge.
Medford's school district sent the following notice to parents: "This challenge encourages students to intentionally damage or break their school-issued Chromebooks and share the act online for attention or social media validation."
The Wallingford Swarthmore School District also sent out a similar request last week urging parents "to talk to your child about responsible use of school-lined technology. Chromebooks are district property, and families may be held responsible for damage."
We want to stress that neither of the school districts urging parents to talk to their children and monitor their social media use have had any school-issued computers destroyed, and they hope to keep it that way by informing parents about what others have been doing around the country.
What they're saying
FOX 29 met some rising seniors who told us they saw videos of it being done across the country.
"You stick pencil lead from a mechanical pencil into the charging port, and it like blows up your computer," said Ellie Sleeper from Burlington County Institute of Technology. Why would anyone do that?, asked FOX 29's Steve Keeley. "I don't know, they're bored," she replied.
"It's stupid, honestly. I just feel why would you do that to a computer somebody gave you? I think it's a privilege we get to use them. There's no point in destroying something that it's not something you bought yourself for something like that, you know," said Tori Hess, a rising senior at Burlington County Institute of Technology.
"Why would you do that? Because it costs your parents' money. They have to pay for that, they have to pay the school back. It just doesn't make any sense why would you do that," added Phillip Pyant from Burlington County Institute of Technology.
A former student who went to school before computers were in classrooms doesn't want to see her already high school taxes go any higher because of intentional damage like this.
"They should have to be made only for them or their parents made to pay for them, because we pay a lot of school taxes, and that's not right. They have to be taught a lesson," said Pat Guthrie from Burlington County.
The Source
The information in this story is from Medford school district and Wallingford Swarthmore School District.