There’s a deadly game that kids play without knowing the deadly consequences. Although this game has been around for years, the Internet has made it possible for kids to see instructional videos as well as see other kids playing this game. Any interested party can go to www.YouTube.com, search for any one of the game’s names and up will pop a variety of these videos. In some videos you will be able to hear the kids talking about keeping their participation secret from their parents; in at least one you are able to hear a parent yelling at her daughter to stop “falling” so much. Other videos record personal experiences after participation in the game.
The CDC publication, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly, reported 82 child deaths between the years 1995 to 2007 that could be credited to asphyxiation games. These kids were between the ages of 6 and 19. The game has many names: Space Monkey, the Funky Chicken Dance, the Black Out game, the Scarf game, Cloud Nine, Airplaning, Tingling, the Dream game, Gasp, the Purple Dragon, the Fainting game, the Pass Out game, and the Flat Liner game. With names like these you may have heard kids talking about it and never even realized what it was.
Why do kids do this? First, most have no idea how this activity deprives their brains of oxygen. Second, for some it is a matter of peer pressure or curiosity. It’s fun to get a “high”. This “high” is easy to do, quick, and you don’t have to worry about getting in trouble with alcohol or drugs…that’s why it’s called “the good kid’s high”. It’s a free feeling of intoxication or a new type of “self-medication”.
The majority of deaths being reported are kids in their pre-teen and early teenage years. Just how extensive participation is in this activity is difficult to determined. In the past, Medical Examiners who investigated the death of a child with a belt or tie around his neck were mostly likely calling the death a suicide. However, reports coming from younger siblings who witnessed their brother or sister playing the game have confirmed this may not tell the entire story. One 7-year-old told his parents that his brother was just playing Space Monkey by himself. For early childhood teachers and administrators this is an alarm bell that won’t stop ringing. Some of our very young and impressionable students may be witnessing this activity and begin to imitate it.
An article from Injury Prevention (an international peer review journal for health professionals and others in injury prevention) discusses a report by Dr. Andres Macnab, a Vancouver pediatrician from the University of British Columbia. He investigated a series of young children found strangled to death in continuous cloth towel dispensers. These cloth towel dispensers were located in school restrooms. Dr. Macnab determined some of these kids were playing asphyxiation games. Interestingly enough, some of the videos kids have posted on YouTube were filmed in school restrooms. It only takes a little privacy and a very little time to play this game.
As educators and parents we need to be on the alert for some common “tell-tale“ signs of kids participating in this activity. These signs often include slang references to playing the game (using the cute names that may go unnoticed by teachers and parents). Kids may have bloodshot eyes, neck marks, complain of severe headaches or appear to be disorientate after being alone. For parents, an unexplained item in a kid‘s possession may be a cue that things just aren‘t right: belts, bungee cords, dog leashes, or scarves in their bedrooms or book bags. Bedroom doors that are locked for no apparent reason. And, all adults need to be paying attention to a sudden interest kids talking about or asking questions about being unconscious.
In addition to causing destruction of brain cells due to oxygen deprivation, these games can cause strokes and seizures as the previously restricted blood rushes back into the brain causing neurological confusion. Participants have reported serious falls resulting in head injuries and broken bones as well as losing control of their bodily functions. It is suffocation roulette.
Growing up is not an easy task. The road to adulthood is not easily navigated. Kids face all kinds of pressures that they often are too shy or embarrassed to share. They are in the process of learning to make good decisions and often haven’t learned to gather all the facts. They often ignore the facts for a moment of woozy feeling, this video moment of their friends looking and acting silly. Dr. Tom Andrews, New Hampshire’s Chief Medical Examiner has estimated that 20% of our teenagers participate in this game.
Providing education on this subject is critical. An excellent website is:
http://www.stop-the-choking-game.com Their name, GASP is an acronym for Games Adolescents Shouldn’t Play and is filled with factual information about this important topic.
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