More Children Getting Hurt In Copycat Stunts
Updated 09/10/10 10:36 a.m.
NEW YORK (CBS 2) -- We all did silly things when we were young, but today's kids are getting even more daring --copycatting dangerous stunts they see on TV or online.
Now, as CBS 2's Kristine Johnson reports, doctors say they're seeing the results of many of these antics in emergency rooms.
Ten-year-old Ryan Gooding has always been an inquisitive and experimental kid, but that's all changed now.
"When we put the ingredients in the bottle, the bottle got pressurized and then eventually blew up," Gooding said.
Gooding was conducting a little experiment known as the "flaming bottle" when something went terribly wrong. The bottle exploded in his face -- shattering his nose, burning his skin and nearly blinding him. His mom said the idea came from watching a video online.
"I was absolutely furious that he was getting this stuff from YouTube and then imitating it," Sonya Gooding said.
His story is nothing new to Dr. Hani Mansour, medical director of the Burn Center at Saint Barnabas Hospital in Livingston, N.J. Mansour said he's seeing four times the amount of burn patients this year versus previous years resulting from similar failed stunts seen online or on screen.
"They don't see the disaster cases. They see only the successful cases. They think it's harmless. They think it's cute," Dr. Mansour said.
Do a quick search of the Internet and you'll find hundreds of fire tricks and kids performing countless other dangerous stunts. CBS 2 saw New Jersey teens riding their bikes on a melting, frozen pond, and an upstate New York girl jumping off the roof of her parents' home.
"All these extreme things that they are doing are all like a new culture because they can publish it, because they can show it to a lot of people," Dr. Mansour said.
So why are kids drawn to these risky behaviors?
"Their brain is not fully developed at this point to fully grasp the cause and effect of their actions. Kids also think that they're invincible and that nothing that they are going to do is really going to be that bad or cause harm," family therapist Clair Mellenthin said.
And now, with the Internet, the whole world becomes a stage.
"So instead of being limited to their tiny little neighborhood or geographical area, they have exposure to what kids are doing and adults are doing worldwide," Mellenthin said.
To protect your kids experts recommend you consider parental filters for your computer and monitor your child's Internet history, keeping an eye out for any injuries that seem out of the ordinary.
As for Ryan Gooding, he's had reconstructive plastic surgery to fix his nose and said he's learned his lesson the hard way.
"If anybody were going to try it, I would suggest not because, obviously, you've seen what happened to me," he said.
Canadian researchers have also recently reported a growing number of videos demonstrating recreational asphyxiation -- commonly known as the choking game. Though this deadly game has been around for decades, experts are worried the Web will give it new popularity.
