If you’re an avid internet user, you must have come across the viral videos of the milk crate challenge on social media platforms like TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

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The trending yet dangerous challenge involves the stacking of empty plastic crates in a pyramid-shaped staircase and attempting to walk from one side to the other, without letting the pyramid fall apart.

Videos featuring the antics have received millions of views across the world.

The challenge, which looks easy on a surface level, poses a threat to the physical wellness of whoever summons the courage to engage in it.

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HOW IT STARTED

While it remains unclear who started the milk crate challenge, it is believed to have originated from the United States before it went viral globally.

The challenge first appeared online in 2011 after JoyRiders TV posted a video on YouTube titled “Guy falls of 6 milk crates.”

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It gained popularity recently on TikTok and soon became a sensation on other social media platforms.

For many, it is an avenue to showcase their courage while also catching fun.

HEALTH CONCERNS

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Video clips of people engaging in the dreadful challenge have continued to elicit mixed reactions due to its inherent health dangers.

In some clips making the rounds, for instance, people partaking in the challenge could be seen falling off the crates and sustaining various kinds of injuries in the process.

Weighing into the matter, Chinonso Egemba, Nigerian medical practitioner better known as Aproko doctor, warned that the challenge may result in broken bones which are medically expensive to fix in the country.

“Before you stack crates to climb in Nigeria, make sure you have health insurance, broken  bones cost millions of Naira to fix. Doctors are currently on strike” he wrote on his Twitter page.

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Another doctor, simply identified as Wale on Twitter, also listed the health risks associated with the challenge to include spinal cord compression with paralysis, ankle fracture, elbow fracture and rupture of the spleen.

On his part, Dipo Awojide, a lecturer and Twitter influencer, urged Nigerians not to get involved in the challenge, citing the ongoing strike by doctors in the country.

“If you do crate challenge in Nigeria and God wants to punish you, you will fall down and they will cut your leg. Remember Doctors are still on strike. Use your head,” he wrote.

TheCable had reported how doctors in the country declared an industrial action over “irregular payment of salaries” among other issues.

TIKTOK BANS CONTENT ON VIRAL CHALLENGE 

Amid the health concerns over the challenge, TikTok had disabled the hashtag #MilkCrateChallenge on its site.

The company also announced the prohibition of the content because it promotes dangerous acts serving as threats to the physical health of its “practitioners”.

“TikTok prohibits content that promotes or glorifies dangerous acts, and we remove videos and redirect searches to our Community Guidelines to discourage such content. We encourage everyone to exercise caution in their behavior whether online or off,” the company was quoted as saying.

Below are some clips of the milk crate challenge:

 

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