Cracking eggs on children’s heads, does the TikTok Egg Crack Challenge go too far?
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The latest TikTok challenge shows parents catching their children off guard by cracking raw eggs on their child’s head.
One video compilation shows children under the pretense they are watching, or helping their mom cook.
All of a sudden, they are getting an egg cracked on their forehead. The children’s reactions range from shock and anger, to tearful meltdowns. Viewers are overwhelmingly against the trend.
“No the girl who slapped herself on her forehead afterwards made me so sad, it really made me feel sad for her.” a TikTok user by the name of “Moadivina” said.
“The little girl with the blue top broke my heart,” another user, Louise, said.
Parenting websites are urging parents to shut the trend down.
Motherly has an audience of more than 30 million users each month and aims to help women navigate motherhood. A recent article published on the site is titled “PSA: Please don’t crack eggs on your toddler’s head for the sake of social media trends.”
In it, Motherly points to the @mom.uncharted account on TikTok. It’s run by a woman who goes by “Sarah” and is dedicated to “Exploring Generation Shared & Calling Out Child Exploitation on SM,” according to her profile.
Sarah made a video addressing the “egg crack.” She mentions how, yes, some children got a chuckle out of it, but many of the children did not find it funny.
“When I see these videos I think like, are we that bored as parents and like, so desperate for content, like needing something to post on the internet so bad … cracking eggs on our children’s heads in hopes that they have an entertaining reaction that we can post publicly online to entertain strangers. What are we doing? Why are we doing this?” @mom.uncharted said.
Motherly goes as far as calling the challenge bullying.
“Please don’t be your child’s first bully. Because that’s exactly what this is — bullying. For the sake of content. It’s not only not funny (really, there are SO many ways to make funny and validating content for parents—this isn’t it), but it’s not at all OK,” Motherly contributor Cassandra Stone said in an article.
Scary Mommy has a similar view.
“Imagine being so excited to spend time with your parent, making something delicious with them in the kitchen, only to be completely set up and have pain inflicted on you — physical and otherwise. Then, despite your reaction, your parent posts it on their social media for strangers to watch you cry,” Scary Mommy staff writer Katie Garrity said.
By Aug. 23, the hashtag #eggcrackchallenge had 63.5 million views on TikTok.