A warning has been issued by an Ivy League school over a ‘scary,’ social media trend, which has been tied to slapping attacks.
The University of Pennsylvania’s Division of Public Safety issued a message that notified the campus community about reports of students being slapped or struck in the head near the campus.
Newsweek has reached out to UPenn’s Division of Public Safety via email for comment.
Why It Matters
Social media trends generally involve innocuous activities such as dances, but sometimes, dangerous challenges emerge on social media platforms, as individuals gamble with pranks and stunts in the name of going viral.
Earlier this year, the “Chromebook Challenge” sprang up on social media and involved school students inserting items such as paper clips or pencils into the USB port of their Chromebook laptop.
Previous years have seen users swerving their cars as they follow instructions from the “Cha Cha Slide” and the so-called Benadryl challenge, which encouraged social media users to take excessive amounts of the medication to try to experience a high that could cause hallucinations.
What To Know
UPenn’s message said that officials believe these attacks are connected to a social media trend but did not go into specifics over what the trend is, or, what platform it is circulating on.
The alert detailed that these attacks have happened near the Penn campus, specifically “in the area of 40th to 38th Streets, from Market Street to Locust Street.”
It continued, “The Division of Public Safety is actively addressing this in multiple ways including adding more police and security presence in the area and working with our City partners to stop the issue. We will continue, as long as necessary, to take steps to stop these events from happening so members of our community feel safe and unthreatened.”
One UPenn student, named Alex Schnurman told CBS News Philadelphia, “I’d like to think I’d be safe on my own campus. It’s pretty scary to hear that you could walk around randomly minding your business, you get slapped by a kid.”
What People Are Saying
The alert from The University of Pennsylvania read in part: “There have been multiple recent reports by Penn students and other community members of groups of young people slapping or striking individuals in the head on and near Penn’s campus, specifically in the area of 40th to 38th Streets, from Market Street to Locust Street. The victims are approached by one or more members of the group who then, unprovoked, strike the unknown victim with open hand or closed fist. We believe that this is connected to a nationwide social media trend.”
A University of Pennsylvania sophomore told CBS News Philadelphia: “The Penn community is pretty tight, and I feel like everyone is pretty welcoming to each other, but to hear of people running around slapping students, it’s absurd and sucks.”
What’s Next
UPenn has issued safety advice to students, including not wearing headphones, staying off of phones, and making sure to stay aware of surroundings.