Dangerous TikTok Challenges Parents Must Know | Viral Trends 2025

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Potentially hazardous social media challenges are landing kids —and possibly homeowners —in hot water this summer, when they have time off from school.

Specific Challenges

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Two specific challenges are popular on social media, including the "UrbanEx" or "urban exploration" challenge and the "door-kicking challenge."

"There's a new trend every day. … You go to the FYP, the For You Page, and you see what's trending.". And then pretty soon, you’ll see content created by children, which is in and of itself problematic. A lot of the children under the age of 13 … are legally not allowed to even be on social media,” Titania Jordan, CMO and chief parent officer at Bark Technologies, a parental control app, told Fox News Digital.

Social media challenges ask their users to produce more "content that provokes a response," she said, "that has virality to it, comes back and comes back again, all thanks again to the algorithm."

"This type of content is going to be liked, it's going to be commented on, it's going to be shared".

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It's going to make children attempt to copy it because it's clout — they are getting clout among other children due to this," she added. "…Any test like this, children aren't thinking, 'Is this the right thing to do? Is this safe? ' They're thinking, 'I need validation,' and children are going to get killed.".

I mean, just one armed person who gets their door kicked in by a kid, and you’re gonna have another national headline that is very sad.”

Law enforcement agencies across the country are warning of both trends, the former of which challenges social media users to explore abandoned buildings and the latter of which challenges them to kick in strangers’ doors.

Though the door-kicking challenge has been around years, several agencies made recent statements warning of a potential increase in the trend this summer. An Ohio police department recently issued a warning on the challenge, stating it is investigating four incidents that were reported in Byesville.  

"Reports of doors kicking in on homes started coming in during the middle of the night". 

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Police have gathered evidence from neighbourhoods that point towards a social media trend known as the 'Door Kicking Challenge' being responsible for these actions," the Byesville Police Department posted on Facebook. "The offenders are not breaking into the homes; they are simply kicking in the front doors and then leaving the scene."Social media trends may endanger kids and homeowners this summer. Friendswood Police Department / Facebook

Byesville police further stated that officials are gathering physical evidence from the crime scenes, including video evidence.

Byesville PD Chief Daulton Dolan explained to Fox News Digital that the door-kick challenges bring "ding dong ditch" to a whole new level, particularly in stand-your-ground states such as Ohio. If you believe that your life or the lives of members of your family are at risk, you can use deadly force against someone there on the spot. So, if, for example, someone bursts open [a] door in the middle of the night, and the homeowner thinks that they're entering will be able to physically injure them, they're going to shoot them if they have a gun handy," Dolan said.

“In Southeast Ohio … we’ve seen that before.”

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The door-knock challenges could take “ding dong ditch” to a new level if they happen in a stand-your-ground state, the Byesville PD Chief Daulton Dolan warned.

Additionally, in Ohio, if a person’s leg enters another person’s home by kicking a door in, that can result in a burglary charge, on top of possibly trespassing charges, Dolan explained.

Homeowners could also have a long wait in the criminal justice system if they use a gun to defend themselves when someone kicks in their door, Dolan indicated.  "Our responsibility would be: if the homeowner had discharged a firearm if someone had kicked in their door, we would investigate that. Naturally, we would take the firearm that was used in it as evidence.".

We would accept any type of interviews and reports, medical testing, photos, measurements, anything … and then we would send it over to the Guernsey County Prosecutor's Office … [who] can eliminate it as a justified homicide or they can take it up further and present it to a grand jury."

The Fleetwood Police Department

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In Pennsylvania, on June 8, a warning was issued  that a "TikTok 'door knock' or 'door kick' challenge involves kids and teens recording themselves doing exactly that; knocking on and/or kicking strangers' doors, typically late at night." Whereas 'ding dong ditch' has been a tradition for decades of children who were seeking to engage in a bit of naughty play, today's youth have escalated things to a more pathological level by kicking in doors and eventually damaging them," the department stated.

"In addition to the cost to homeowners who are usually left with the cost of repairs, there is also the possibility of a child being seriously injured or even killed by someone who thinks, particularly during the middle of the night, that their home is being invaded and ultimately concludes there is a threat to life and property."

The Texas Fort Worth Police Department also recently released a similar alert.

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"This is something that is happening in a great many places all over the state, and that is happening here in Texas," the Fort Worth Police Department said. "It is significant for those individuals who are perpetrating this particular trend to understand that even in those instances where there would not be an actual break-in and theft action taking place, their action is still a criminal act, which would make this act vandalism and could result in the arrest of these individuals for criminal offences." 

Of greater importance, it could be mistaken as an attempted break-in, which could cause risky or defensive behaviour in residents."

The agency also urged parents

"To discuss with their children the risks and consequences of participating in trends such as this," explaining that "what appears to be a prank can result in very real trouble and/or injury." Another trend, "UrbanEx," recently made the news for taking part in social media users in jail. The "challenge" has users going into abandoned buildings, ranging from old schools to churches to retail and entertainment venues.

The Harris County Constables Precinct One in Texas recently announced the arrest of three 18-year-old men, who are alleged to have trespassed at the Houston Astrodome, which has been out of business since 2009.

The Constables office stated that security personnel at the venue observed the three men entering the stadium at midnight and again saw them fleeing across a parking lot and over a fence. The three teenagers face trespassing charges.

"Entering abandoned old historic buildings is risky." 

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Constable Precinct One Alan Rosen stated on June 10. "You are exposing yourself and first responders to danger, and it is illegal."A video taken inside the Astrodome on June 8 and posted by Urbex.tx on TikTok had almost 845,000 views.

A 23-year-old man, Guillermo Leflore, also known as "Urbex Tarzan" on TikTok, was arrested last year after authorities claimed he broke onto private property while venturing into steam tunnels. It wasn't the first time he tried a stunt that could have harmed him for the sake of social media; he stands accused of having tried to climb the Milwaukee Art Museum previously, according to FOX 6 Milwaukee. Ari Lightman, professor of digital media and marketing at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, told Fox News Digital that social media trends resemble what used to be games of truth-or-dare “on steroids.”“You’re reaching tens of thousands of people. You’re not daring somebody face-to-face,” Lightman said. “Why are they doing that? Is it fair to receive likes, and those likes could become followers, and those followers could become advertisers, and those advertisers could become profits for others?

Is it even real or artificial intelligence generated?

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" The UrbanEx trend's defenders argue that it lays bare historically relevant buildings left to decay; numerous social media users have been urging regional city officials to refurbish abandoned churches, houses, schools and event venues.  "Just the overall lack of respect among kids these days, whether it's for people's property in the classroom or other people's emotions, it's a huge issue.". They're missing out on empathy and respect because they're too busy sitting in front of a screen and not getting enough to understand human emotion," Jordan explained.

She recommended parents join a Facebook group called "Parenting in a Tech World", where the "latest trends are being shared there from parents whose children are experiencing it in real-time." She also recommended parents discuss the things that their kids are viewing on the internet with them openly and calmly, and Google the trends that are showing up on social media sites.

Perhaps your child is playing Roblox and you don't feel like it's safe. Google risks of Roblox. Explain to your child how other children have been hurt by people they have been seduced by on that site so they understand you're not being overcautious," she said.

"All you can do is sit down with them and have honest level-headed conversations with them, and not talking to them or talking about them, but get them to tell you what they've seen. 

What did they perceive? What do they perceive to be the risks of loitering about an abandoned building and documenting it? 

Perhaps they tell you they don't know, and that can lead to a conversation on the spot."