Unfortunately, the era of participating in harmful, life-threatening social media trends is still among us. In the latest case, the trend in question is alleged to have claimed the life of a 13-year-old boy in Southern California.
The parents of 13-year-old Nnamdi “Deuce” Ohaeri, Jr. were terrified to find their son unresponsive the morning of Feb 3. The family had just watched the Grammys the following evening, watching Deuce’s excitement over Kendrick Lamar’s category sweep, according to KTLA 5 News.
However, the typical school morning quickly turned to panic as they called 911, attempted to administer CPR and rushed to neighbors for help, per the report. His family said he was pronounced dead later. It’s unclear exactly what Deuce’s cause of death is but they said it appeared he had taken his life, they said via KTLA. However, that conclusion didn’t rest right with his family given he had such a bright future ahead of him.
In their own investigation, the family tells KTLA they figured out what may have led to the tragedy. They assume Deuce participated in a social media game where you make yourself pass out but stop before you faint completely.
“I heard something where this young person tried to make themselves pass out and I guess they came back from it,” said Nnamdi Ohaeri, Sr., Deuce’s father via KTLA.
However, questions still remain as to whether he participated in said social media trend as Deuce’s parents tell KTLA the teen had no social media pages and also had strict parental controls on his cellphone. This led them to believe he was influenced by his peers at school, they told KTLA.
While the family always warned Deuce against drug abuse, alcohol use and everything else we get speeches about as teenagers, Ohaeri, Sr. said he never thought about the influence of social media.
“I’m going through the Rolodex of guilt now like, ‘Did we check in more? Should I have not been as firm four years ago?’” Ohaeri, Sr. said via KTLA. “But we don’t talk about not following social media trends or playing social media games and maybe we need to.”
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen tragedy follow a dangerous social media trend. Back in 2023, a teen died after participating in the viral Paqui One Chip challenge. Even more children died after taking part in a “Blackout Challenge” that took over TikTok years ago, resulting in a slew of lawsuits against the app claiming it was responsible for influencing their children. Certainly, these incidents beg the question of just how powerful social media is for young, impressionable minds and if it can be held responsible for such tragedies.
Deuce was remembered for his love for sports and football as well as his “great wit” and sense of humor, per the report. He was the oldest of four boys.