The TikTok Milk Crate Challenge Is the Latest Dangerous Social Media Trend We’re Stupidly Tempted to Try

Leave it to TikTok to help a brand-new, dangerous way to hurt yourself spread like wildfire through the internet. It’s called the Milk Crate Challenge, and it looks near impossible to execute successfully – or unscathed.

The challenge involves stacking empty milk crates like a staircase, then climbing up one side and down the other – but hardly anyone makes it to the other side. People fall on the ground or on a crate. Some break bones. No one has died (that we know of) but if the trend continues, we can’t imagine it would be much longer until someone did.

Here’s an example of an intrepid challenge-taker.

Shorty raised the stakes pic.twitter.com/z3sVh3Wh7H

— Dee Goodz (@dee_goodz) August 23, 2021

Supposedly, this attempt at the challenge was deadly, but not because of the milk crates.

THIS JUST IN A shocking Milk Crate Challenge ended in a shootout! It is not yet clear if anyone was shot or why they were shooting.. pic.twitter.com/iIBsXlxEd1

— Official Milk Crate Challenge News Source (@SirVstudios) August 22, 2021

If you’re waiting for law enforcement to intervene, though, you might be waiting forever. Even a cop got in on the action.

In a rare stance by the social media platform, TikTok banned the #milkcratechallenge hashtag (which racked up more than 9 million views) and has publicly denounced the Milk Crate Challenge. That’s why you’ll have trouble finding videos of the challenge now.

“TikTok prohibits content that promotes or glorifies dangerous acts, and we remove videos and redirect searches to our Community Guidelines to discourage such content. We encourage everyone to exercise caution in their behavior whether online or off,” the company said in a statement to Fast Company.

Doctors were also quick to denounce the trend.

“The Milk Crate Challenge is very dangerous, and we are seeing many orthopedic injuries as a result of the falls,” Dr. Shawn Anthony, an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, told the “Today” show. “Injuries can include broken wrists, shoulder dislocations, ACL and meniscus tears, as well as life-threatening conditions like spinal cord injuries.”

While our logical minds know it’s dangerous, we have to admit: we kind of want to try it. Just don’t tell our moms, OK?

Cover Photo: TikTok

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