[imagesource: Facebook / VCSO]

TikTok has proven time and time again that it is the perfect place for dumb, and somewhat dangerous, challenges to fester.

At the moment, police across the US are contending with people partaking in the viral ‘Orbeez Challenge’.

The challenge requires someone to fire Orbeez, or gelatinous pellets, using toy guns or even airsoft rifles, at others.

As innocuous as it sounds and looks, police are not tolerating all these wannabe TikTok stars shooting each other, and in some cases random unsuspecting people, with this gel-ball airsoft toy gun.

Check it out:

@thebigefamily These Gel blasters never run out @Gel Blaster #fyp #fypシ #orbeeze ♬ original sound – Thebigefamily

People mostly share videos of themselves playing with the small gel balls, but there have been a few more questionable cases.

The little bullets have caused injury to some, with one 10-year-old in Peachtree, Georgia, suffering a bloody nose and a teacher in Florida reportedly getting one briefly lodged up her nose, reported VICE.

Per NPR, the police in Fernandina Beach make a few points to consider:

“[Shooting Orbeez balls] could cause injury if striking a person at a high speed or in a sensitive area such as the eyes. This ‘trend’ also has the potential to cause fear or panic in that some of these gel blaster guns could be mistaken for an actual firearm.”

That last point is especially pertinent in America, following the fatal police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland back in 2014 after he was seen holding a toy that police mistook for a real gun.

Other officials are worried that the Orbeez will become a sort of gateway weapon, tempting someone to potentially use a real gun at some point.

The Ocala Police Department in Florida sent out a warning about a particularly worrisome Orbeez incident:

It’s not really all fun and games when police are warning that shooting an Orbeez can result in serious criminal charges:

Elsewhere in Florida, police shared on Wednesday that deputies arrested a 19-year-old in Deltona who shot at an Amazon delivery driver, hitting his glasses and neck — all while he was driving.

The same shooter involved in that case also shot another random adult and a 10-year-old child in the face and chest. Deputies identified and arrested the suspect, charging him with shooting into an occupied vehicle, child abuse and two counts of battery, according to the sheriff of Florida’s Volusia County.

The challenge has indeed gone a little too far in some cases, with the pretend morphing into the real:

In another instance, a group of Highland, Utah teens say someone fired a real gun at them after initially shooting them with orbeez. As the teens walked over to confront who they thought was a prankster participating in the challenge, they said the individual pulled an actual firearm on them and fired.

No one was injured in the incident and police have not been able to find the person who allegedly fired at them.

Meanwhile, TikTok told Newsweek that “Orbeez gun shooting content is not native to TikTok and that such videos are not popular or a common trend on the app”.

But the videos of people shooting the Orbeez gel bullets at other each other and other people are still very much present on the platform, with folks using a number of different hashtags, like #tiktokmademebuyit #gelblaster #splatgun #orbeezgunwar #splatballguns #splatrballwar #splatterball and so on.

TikTok might be confused because the #OrbeezChallenge tag appears to be quite safe, with people just playing around with the beads, sans guns.

It’s still worth noting that Facebook parent company Meta “is paying one of the biggest Republican consulting firms in the US to orchestrate a nationwide campaign seeking to turn the public against TikTok”.

Part of that campaign involves “promoting dubious stories about alleged TikTok trends that actually originated on Facebook”.

Anyway, we’d be wise to move on and ignore this one.

[sources:vice&npr&newsweek]