The Forensic Mental Health Implications of Social Media Challenges

Children and adults are increasingly spending time on social networking sites where they may be exposed to social media challenges. These challenges, which are essentially dares or competitions, often involve participants recording themselves performing various activities to create a short video which they then share online. Many social media challenges may be considered relatively benign, but others may involve behaviors or tasks that lead to adverse outcomes, including injury and death. In this article, the authors describe different types of social media challenges, susceptibility to risk-taking among social media users, and the potential criminal and civil legal aspects of these challenges. This article focuses on the forensic mental health implications of social media challenges, including considerations for forensic psychiatrists and other mental health professionals who may become involved in court cases related to these challenges.