Officials warn about this 'dangerous' social media trend in US; police say, ‘Anyone participating in this…'
safety advocacy groups
have expressed fears about a new and dangerous social media trend that is spreading across the US. Experts have warned that the
"
door-kick challenge
"
could result in a tragedy. The challenge involves aggressively kicking random doors at night, sometimes to the point of breaking them, and uploading videos of the act online. This trend is an extreme version of the "ding-dong-ditch" prank. Authorities are now warning parents about the challenge after recent incidents have been reported in multiple states, including California, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Wisconsin, Texas, and Michigan. Online safety advocacy groups have also warned that participants in the trend could either lose their lives or face jail time due to the dangerous and destructive nature of the prank.
What experts and officials have said about the new 'door-kick challenge'
Following a recent incident in Louisville, Kentucky, the city's police described the prank as
'stupid and dangerous.'
After a woman reportedly caught masked teens kicking down her door at 2:30 AM,
Louisville Metro Police
Department spokesperson
John Bradley
said:
'Anyone participating in this type of behaviour is certainly risking their own life. A resident could easily assume that resorting to deadly force against the person is the next appropriate course of action to protect themselves from what they believe may be an intruder. This type of behaviour is stupid and dangerous.'
In a statement to The Independent, Florida's Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said:
'That's a good way to end up dead. Especially in Florida. You've got to think you're about to become a victim of a home invasion robbery and, under the
Castle doctrine
, you're gonna shoot first and ask questions later.'
Titania Jordan, chief parenting officer at Bark Technologies, a parental control app, told The Independent:
'This trend has the potential to end in absolute tragedy. We're not just talking about property damage — kids are putting themselves at serious risk. If homeowners are armed or on high alert, it's not hard to imagine how a prank like this could escalate into something irreversible. What's at stake is more than just a viral moment gone wrong. It's a child's life, a family's future, and the potential for criminal charges that could follow them for years.'
Marc Berkman, CEO of the Organisation for
Social Media Safety
, said that social media has 'conditioned' American teens to replicate risky challenges and pranks.
'Social media incentivises users, especially teens, to post content that will generate likes, shares, and views, or 'clout' as some may call it. Unfortunately, what generates that social media attention is often salacious content: violent, explicit or otherwise extreme. Our teens, spending upwards of five hours a day viewing this content, quickly become desensitised to it, and violence, cruel pranks, and challenges become normalised,'
Berkman said to The Independent.
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