Forget harmless pranks — TikTok’s latest trend has students setting their Chromebooks ablaze, sparking school evacuations and safety warnings across the country.
Known as the #ChromebookChallenge, the dangerous stunt encourages kids to jam metal objects, like paper clips and pushpins, into the charging ports of their laptops, causing electrical short circuits that can ignite fires.
Connecticut is ground zero for the reckless trend, with Newington High School evacuated last week after a student’s laptop started spewing toxic smoke.
“The room at the time of the fire was filling with smoke,” Newington fire marshal DJ Zordon said, as reported by NBC Connecticut.
“The batteries that are essentially catching on fire, once they burn, they’re producing this toxic smoke.”
The unsettling phenomenon isn’t just confined to the Nutmeg State.
Schools across California, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and Washington have issued warnings about the trend, which sees students inserting mechanical pencil lead, aluminum foil, and other conductive items into Chromebook ports.
“It’s more than just a trend,” Zordon continued.
“It causes a lot of disruption. The school has to be evacuated, firefighters respond to the firehouse and subsequently to the scene, it takes resources from any other emergencies that might be happening at that time.”
On TikTok, the trend goes by other names like #ChromebookDurabilityTest and #FStudent, with some videos racking up thousands of views in mere hours.
Clips show kids cackling as they jam springs and pins into their laptops, waiting for smoke to billow out — all for a few moments of viral fame and comments like, “anything but work,” mocking that they’d rather torch their Chromebooks than do schoolwork.
And the consequences are mounting, as NBC Connecticut noted.
In Southington, Connecticut, students at Southington High School were evacuated on May 7 after another Chromebook fire, fire officials said.
Similar incidents have been reported in Cromwell, Derby, and Newington, Connecticut, as well as East Fishkill, New York, prompting stern warnings from state fire officials.
But the chaos isn’t just about a few kids seeking attention.
Videos of the trend have flooded TikTok’s For You page, and school officials are struggling to keep up.
According to TikTok, 99.7% of dangerous content flagged from October to December last year was removed proactively, but the platform still faces criticism for how quickly such trends spread.
TikTok allows users to report dangerous content through its “Dangerous activities and challenges” category, but that hasn’t stopped the spread.
And for school districts, the fallout is costly — from potential fines for damaged equipment to missed class time due to evacuations.
For now, experts are urging parents to talk to their kids about the risks — and schools to enforce strict punishments for those caught participating.
Police in Providence, Rhode Island, warned WJAR that students torching their Chromebooks for TikTok clout could be hit with school punishments — and maybe even criminal charges.
But with the TikTok trend still spreading like wildfire, let’s hope it’s not too late to put this blaze out.
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