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Examples: [Collected via e-mail and Facebook, June 2015] Origins: The growing encroachment of social media into every area of life hasn't necessarily led to a rise in foolish teenage behavior, but it does seem to be fueling misguided parental ideas about how teenagers conspire to spend their free time. The idea that dangerous social media challenges are popular seems to be on the upswing. The ice bucket challenge of mid-2014 may well have inspired the increase in social media challenge fads; but parental fears of largely non-existent practices such as rainbow parties, vodka-infused tampons, bedbug smoking, and 'beezin preceded it. In 2015, anxious parents feared that the paracetamol challenge would inspire their children to overdose on over-the-counter painkillers; and in the same vein, the 72-hour challenge (also known as the Game of 72) prompted concerns that kids were participating in a pointless and dangerous social media fad. In April 2015, the Daily Mail published a thinly-sourced article titled Parents left terrified by cruel new 'game' on Facebook that sees children dare each other to vanish for 72 hours without telling relatives. As with other panics of similar nature, the article breathlessly described a game that sounded of no real interest to teens whatsoever and included scant evidence that participants were actually undertaking the purported challenge: That article referenced France's The Local, whose original article (also published on 29 April 2015) was far plainer in describing what was in all likelihood a classic urban legend of the crime-warning variety. The article admitted that the Game of 72 could even be more of a hoax than an actual phenomenon but went on to say that the fact that officials are taking the incident seriously is perhaps unsurprising given France's troubling history when it comes to dangerous social media crazes: The fact that a 13-year-old girl in France named Emma disappeared for three days at some point in April 2015 has been proffered as the sole piece of evidence documenting that the Game of 72 is a real phenomenon. But there's just one problem — that story involving Emma didn't check out, according to police: Aside from that discredited story, the only evidence such a challenge had occurred consisted of ping-ponging warnings among French parents on social media sites issued after the fact. No one was even sure if the kids participating were hiding for 12, 24, or 72 hours. It took about a week for the Game of 72 to make its way to North America, but by that point a small number of temporary disappearances in Europe had stolen French Emma's thunder: (Possibly one, maybe not is indeed a very small number, and it should be noted that a social media challenge is a far better excuse to one's parents than I snuck out and was scared to come home or I ran away and changed my mind.) At around the same time, scattered police departments began to warn parents about the terrifying new craze: On 7 May 2015, Mic published an article that cast doubt on whether the 72-hour challenge was a genuine teen fad or media invention. And much like the February 2015 rumor of measles parties, it seemed news outlets reached to find evidence of police concern about the purported trend: A lack of any confirmed incidents whatsoever and a corresponding absence of any social media chatter (aside from people wondering why kids would undertake the 72-hour challenge) didn't discourage news outlets from advancing the rumor once again in June 2015: In a thread published by Kathy Sweeney of Southeastern Missouri television station KFVS, numerous users speculated that multiple reported disappearances were linked to the game. Sweeney claimed a Facebook page was encouraging kids to participate (but appeared to be unable to produce a link to it) and reiterated the unsupported assertion that the game had first appeared in Europe: As BBC Trending blogger Mike Wendling observed about the Game of 72: Variations: In October 2017, readers spotted a resurgence of stories about a purported social media challenge, virtually identical to the Game of 72 and dubbed the 48-hour challenge: Notably, the tale developed a new twist as it spread again. Although the 2015 scare implied the challenge was an example of teenagers upsetting their parents deliberately, the October 2017 version included a detail about how parental discomfort was measured in social media mentions and rewarded with advancement in the game. The 16 October 2017 BelfastLive article reported: BelfastLive quoted an unnamed parent (not police) about a single purported instance of the game being played by teenagers in Northern Ireland, reiterating the legend in detail but offering no information about how anyone involved learned the teen's disappearance had anything to do with a social media game. The woman said she had been told that her child was in the lead, but didn't say or wasn't asked how she came by that information. Moreover, after claiming that the number of mentions of a missing player on social media was how kids increased their score in the game, the article indicated the teen in question wasn't actually missing for 48 hours (thereby violating its primary parameter): Sites like The Sun covered the purported fad, as did some American news outlets. None of the articles showed any indication teenagers were actually participating in the game: Most articles referenced an individual parent (not police) claiming teenagers were daring one another to go missing for 48 hours. References to the challenge were made primarily by social media users and news sites, and we were again unable to find any examples of teen participation on the platforms via which they purportedly dared each other to disappear. Most October 2017 articles about the game linked back to the poorly supported BelfastLive item, and once again warnings were disseminated by parents and tabloids -- not police.
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