Viral TikTok problem incites violence and vandalism at native colleges

In Connecticut and across the country, TikTok trends “Devious Licks” and “Slap a Teacher” have ravaged high schools.

Alex Ye 1:19 p.m. October 15, 2021

Contributing Reporter

Yale Daily News

A destructive and popular TikTok trend called “Sneaky licks“Has resulted in broken toilets, damaged sinks and stolen soap dispensers in Connecticut public schools over the past month.

The Devious Licks challenge, which went viral last month and has since been banned from the app, encourages students to damage school equipment and post footage on TikTok. Also known as “Diabolical Licks” or “Dastardly Licks”, the trend has popped up in high schools across the country. Students tagged their videos with the hashtag #devious and recorded them stealing and piling up everything from paper towel dispensers to smartboards Million likes in process. The trend, which has resulted in costly damage and significant disruption to both New Haven Public Schools and New Britain High School, is causing local officials to urge TikTok to take more responsibility for the problem.

I need to make it clear that New Haven Public Schools is a top priority the safety of the entire learning community, ”wrote NHPS Superintendent Iline Tracey. “We do not tolerate vandalism … or attacks on students and staff and will deal quickly with consequences, including exclusion from school.”

Tracey wrote in the letter that the challenge within the NHPS system has resulted in the students destroying sinks, soap dispensers and toilets.

In addition to the “Devious Licks” trend, Tracey also warned district families about the TikTok “Slap a Teacher” trend, which encourages students to physically attack their teachers. She urged parents to speak to their students about the harmful videos circulating on TikTok and encourage them to take the topic seriously.

In the letter, Tracey did not state whether the “slap a teacher” trend had found its way into the NHPS. Tracey couldn’t be reached for the news.

Regarding the consequences, Tracey made it clear that the culprits could be expelled if the behavior continues and stressed the school’s zero tolerance stance towards vandalism. Cases of vandalism have been resolved since her message to the community, an NHPS official said.

“All previous problems have been successfully resolved by the schools without asking the district for help,” district spokesman Justin Harmon told the News in an email.

Other Connecticut school districts have taken different approaches to addressing the challenge. For example, New Britain High School in Hartford was forced to temporarily closed last month due to student misconduct, inspired by the Devious Licks challenge. New British students, finally returned on face-to-face learning after the Connecticut State Department of Education asked the school to reopen, but the issue is far from resolved, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said.

Similar to NHPS, New Britain has also faced stolen school property, clogged toilets and excessive vandalism. The “Slap a Teacher” trend was viral in the district last month and endangered employees.

In response to these trends, Tiktok has taken steps to combat harmful content in the app. Business Insider Reported in mid-September that “Devious Licks” had been banned from the platform.

“We expect our community to stay safe and responsibly created, and we don’t allow content that encourages or enables criminal activity,” a TikTok spokesperson wrote to Business Insider. “We’re removing this content and forwarding hashtags and search results to our community guidelines to prevent such behavior.”

In the run-up to TikTok’s announcement, the trend had led to arrests across the country. At a High School in Louisiana, an 18-year-old student was arrested after allegedly assaulting a 64-year-old disabled teacher. at Round Rock Independent School District in Texas, the cost of damage from devious licks is estimated at more than $ 15,000.

However, despite the ban, Connecticut officials remain concerned. After New Britain High School closed, Tong asked to meet with TikTok leadership to discuss the app’s harmful effects.

“The last thing it needs now is that children be flooded with targeted social media encouraging lawlessness, self-harm, and reckless, dangerous pranks,” Tong wrote in a Letter to TikTok executives.

The request to meet was granted and the two parties met last Wednesday. According to Tong, the TikTok spokesperson stated that the platform mainly monitors user content using two methods.

“Your content moderation program … includes both programmatic malicious content identification systems and a human review component where thousands of people claim they are viewing videos that may be problematic,” Tong said.

During the meeting with the TikTok leadership, Tong also expressed concern about the destruction of New Britain High School. He said it is TikTok’s sole responsibility to address the platform’s adverse impact on high school students across the country.

“[It’s] On Tiktok, it’s not Connecticut State’s responsibility, ”Tong said. “I don’t know how to program social media.”

TikTok has more than 130 million monthly active users in the USA.

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