Parents warned about 'eraser challenge' danger

The "eraser challenge' causes serious burns and places students at risk of severe infection.
The "eraser challenge' causes serious burns and places students at risk of severe infection. Photo: Instagram/blaze_69

Following the recent resurgence of the dangerous "salt and ice challenge", a school in North Carolina is now warning parents about yet another deadly internet craze - the eraser challenge, which has also seen a resurgence over the past few months.

If it sounds familiar, that because it's not new. In fact, the eraser challenge may even have been around while you were at school.

In a post to their Facebook page, staff at East Iredell Middle School, asked parents to be vigilant about any burn marks sighted on their kids.

"The latest internet challenge is the "Eraser Challenge", the post reads, along with an accompanying photo of a wound sustained from the craze. "Kids are rubbing an eraser across their skin while having to do or say something. It's causing serious burns and we've seen several cases of this at EIMS."

In one version of the game, also referred to as the "ABC game", students recite the alphabet while rubbing their skin. They then compare their wounds when they reach the letter "z".

While the challenge may have been around for some time, students now have social media to broadcast - and compare - its horrendous "results". 

East Iredell Middle School isn't the only school concerned about the reappearance of the craze.

Warren Hills Middle School in Washington, New Jersey also shared a warning on their website on behalf of the school nurse and school counsellor.

"Lately we have seen several cases of "eraser burn",' the post reads. "You may be asking yourself, what is an eraser burn? Students get an eraser (on the end of a pencil or a chunk eraser) and rub it hard, back and forth on their own skin, or on the skin of another student, with a really fast motion and in the same place creating a serious burn."

Noting that it's not a new trend - and that it's one that seems to come and go - the school added that students are presenting with wounds to the top of their hands.

"They have admitted that the wounds are from eraser burns and they only did it on a dare or to prove they were tough, or because they thought of it as a joke," the warning continues.

The school also highlighted the dangers involved, noting that school erasers are typically " far from clean". As such, students are at risk of severe infection if they rub them against their skin.

"Once the wound begins to heal, they still have an opening (although scabbed) where other bacteria can enter the body and infect them," the school notes.

In 2015, a US teen was hospitalised in a critical condition after participating in the eraser challenge and contracting Strep A Toxic Shock.

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