EDITORIAL — Not for everyone

A vlogger in Leyte died recently because of complications after one of his followers dared him to eat chicken bones in exchange for ?20,000.

Yes, you read that right.

Content creator Rogelio Adriano, filmed himself eating chicken meat and bones after accepting an online challenge from a social media follower who promised him the said amount.

Some days later, he was rushed to the hospital after suffering severe abdominal pain. An X-ray confirmed that the bone fragments had caused internal injury and blockage in his intestines. Despite getting treatment he died shortly after being confined.

The tragedy gets worse; the follower who issued that challenge didn’t even give the promised ?20,000. He is now nowhere to be found. Adriano’s family has asked the police to look into the incident, find the challenger, and hold him responsible for what happened.

Like we said before regarding such tragedies, the best we can do about such events is turn them into teachable moments. We see two things to learn here.

First: Not every online challenge is worth the risk. We understand that many people transform themselves into content creators in the hope of earning more money for themselves or for their families. And being one comes with the added pressure to please all of one’s followers, some of whom will no doubt come up with ridiculous challenges or demands.

Content creators must be able to tell which challenges or dares just aren’t worth doing, taking into account lasting bodily harm or even danger to one’s life.

Second: If you want to issue a challenge then be prepared to hold up your end of the bargain. The issuer of this particular challenge was clearly has some culpability in what happened. Maybe he really wanted to keep his end of the bargain but got spooked after the vlogger died. Or maybe he just wanted to make a fool out of him and had no plans to pay out.

Incidents like these prove that being a content creator isn’t for everyone. Heck, even the internet itself shouldn’t be for everyone.