Student intentionally burns laptop following TikTok prank

(Dan Tri) - A joke is spreading on TikTok, calling on students in the US to burn laptops at school, forcing the social network to intervene.

Accordingly, videos of a prank have been spreading rapidly on the social network TikTok in the US in recent days, with content encouraging children to insert metal objects into the USB ports of laptops at school to create sparks, smoke or even fire.

Many students in the US have followed this joke without thinking about the consequences.

An Arizona high school was briefly evacuated Thursday after a laptop in a classroom started smoking and catching fire after a student used scissors to poke into the USB port on the laptop, causing an electrical short.

Many children use metal objects to plug into the USB port on their laptops, causing the product to smoke (Photo: TikTok).

Six laptops in a South Carolina high school classroom were also damaged by students following a TikTok prank. Fortunately, no fires were reported.

The "Chromebook Challenge" is a viral prank on social network TikTok, mainly targeting Google's low-cost Chromebook laptops (using the ChromeOS operating system), equipped in many schools as well as provided to students in the US.

The goal of this prank is to cause the laptop to spark by inserting metal objects such as paper clips, scissors… into the laptop's charging port or USB port.

One school even warned about students using scissors to stab laptop batteries during the "Chromebook challenge", but this could cause the device to explode, causing serious accidents.

Participants in the challenge will record a video of the phenomenon and share it on social media TikTok. However, this action will damage the laptop, potentially lead to a fire due to electrical short circuit and can even put children in danger.

Many schools have posted warnings to parents and students on social media platforms to prevent children from following the "Chromebook Challenge."

TikTok in the US has also had to intervene by blocking searches for the keyword "Chromebook Challenge" and preventing these videos from spreading widely. TikTok also issued a warning message to users: "Some online challenges can be dangerous, confusing or even fabricated information."

In fact, this is not the first time a dangerous prank has gone viral on TikTok and been responded to and followed by children. Previously, many dangerous pranks were also spread on TikTok globally, leading to many tragic deaths, mainly of minors.

The reason why TikTok is often the place where dangerous pranks originate and spread is because this is a social network aimed at young people, an age group that is willing to carry out risky pranks without thinking about the consequences.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/cong-nghe/hoc-sinh-co-tinh-lam-chay-laptop-do-thuc-hien-theo-tro-dua-tren-tiktok-20250512114005078.htm