Two Boston-area teen girls have been charged in juvenile court this week with child endangerment and assault with a deadly weapon for what they thought was a hilarious joke: putting a 7-month old baby (one of the girls’ little cousin) into the refrigerator and posting it on SnapChat for a laugh. (As you can see on the video, they removed her after just a few seconds, and she is unharmed.)
This, parents, is just another horrifying example of how social media is messing with kids’ heads. The teenage brain at this stage of development is impulsive and inclined to make poor decisions: the ability to broadcast these “pranks” or “challenges” is making these decisions all the more RASH and DANGEROUS.