No, Teens Are Not Really Doing the Condom Snorting Challenge Anymore

Is your teenager an out-of-control condom snorter? No — probably not.

The latest thing media outlets want parents freaking out about is the “Condom Snorting Challenge.” That’s when you stick the tip of a condom up your nose, snort it as high up as you can, and then pull it out of your mouth. And, it’s a scary new trend. Oh no — every teenager is doing it! Except… are they?

This round of articles began with a report on Fox 29 in San Antonio. The report follows Texas education specialist Stephen Enriquez giving an educational seminar to parents about dangerous trends. ”Condom-snorting” is only mentioned once in the report, but you wouldn’t know that from the barrage of articles online saying things like, “snorting condoms is the dangerous emerging social media trend that could kill you.”

Don’t be fooled — It’s hardly emerging.

The videos we found were nearly all from back in 2013. In fact, the summer of 2013 was the last time the Condom Snorting Challenge was a major search term on Google. It’s literally something nobody has been talking about, or uploading, for around 5 years. But other than The Daily Dot and a few other responsible outlets, nearly every article you’ll find on the Condom Snorting Challenge is how it’s this crazy, dangerous new trend that every kid is doing.

Chances are your 14-year-old was 9 the last time this thing was trending and doesn’t even know what it is.

Now, to be sure, you shouldn’t be snorting condoms. It’s very dangerous. Accidentally swallowing a condom can result in a collapsed lung or even, in at least one case, appendicitis. But those cases were from people accidentally swallowing condoms during oral sex.

To date, there is not a single reported case that we could find of health complications resulting from the Condom Snorting Challenge, but that hasn’t stopped people online from reading headlines and jumping to conclusions.

We contacted the Education Service Center in San Antonio that teaches the “Dangerous Trends” class to ask if they thought the media had gone a little overboard. They sent us the following statement:

This ‘trend’ is not all encompassing, it is one of many things to help create awareness and have healthy conversations with our children. Also – we aren’t saying these trends are occurring at ESC-20 schools but rather our role is to provide the educational community with trends circulating via a number of outlets including technology, drug, opioid, tobacco, etc. We’ve been sharing about this and other challenges for years now and don’t know how it gained such popularity just recently. We can say that parents and teachers are very appreciative of learning what’s trending.

Unfortunately, the “challenge” has gained such popularity because a bunch of media outlets decided it should.

Do you think kids are more likely to do the Condom Snorting Challenge now because of media hysteria? Let us know in the comments.

For more stories, follow us on Twitter at @WhatsTrending.