Taped his own mouth because of the “TikTok Challenge”.

It was a very unusual report that the Upper Austrian police issued at the end of February: On February 26, at a party in Taiskirchen (Ried district), an unknown person smeared super glue on the left arm of a 17-year-old and pressed it on the mouth of a 19-year-old . With this story, the two girls tried to explain injuries to the mouth of the 19-year-old, who had to go to the Sisters of Mercy hospital in Ried that same evening.

They also repeated this story during an interrogation by the police. They later produced threatening letters in which the alleged organizer of the party silenced the two young women.

After further investigations by the police, this information turned out to be a fabrication due to inconsistencies in the stories told by the young women. In fact, the two youngsters had tried to follow a social media trend on the platform “TikTok” in which the upper lip is glued to the area between the nose and upper lip with glue. This is meant to make the lips look fuller, similar to stars like Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian’s half-sister.

Instead, the 19-year-old accidentally taped her mouth shut. The two young women probably invented the attack out of shame. There was never a party. Now the young women have to answer for a long list of crimes: they are reported for assault, coercion, feigning a criminal offense and defamation.

Juvenile levity

Injuries are being reported around the world from this “Lip Glue Challenge”. In 2017 in the USA, the “Tide Pod Challenge” ended for several teenagers with poisoning in the hospital: they bit off “Tide Pod” brand washing machine tabs in front of the camera.

Basically, daring and a certain carelessness in young people are quite normal, says psychotherapist Marina Gottwald from the State Association for Psychotherapy. “In terms of developmental psychology, they have to dare to do something that has to do with finding their own identity.” The reckless behavior is an attempt to gain recognition. “Young people want to impress each other with such tests of courage. However, due to the reach of social media, the standards for these tests are becoming more and more extreme,” says the psychotherapist.

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