A GAME THAT KILLS IS NOT A GAME.

Italian prosecutors have opened a probe into the accidental death of a 10-year-old girl who allegedly took part in a “blackout challenge” on the video-sharing network TikTok.The girl died in a Palermo hospital after being discovered Wednesday by her five-year-old sister in her family bathroom with her cellphone, which was seized by police.                                                         

Medical experts have warned about the danger of the challenge being taken up by some young people, who refer to it as “scarfing” or “the choking game” in which restricted oxygen to the brain results in a high.                             

The web is an incredible source of information and culture, but sometimes it can be very dangerous as in these cases. Turning on the TV and hearing this news breaks your heart. Knowing that a small life with a long future has been snuffed out gives us a lot of sadness. These games must not exist, these deaths must not happen. To avoid a repeat of such cases, parents must talk to children about the new challenges they face online and make sure they understand the risks they are running. But the parents’ task does not end there; they must supervise their children so that these kinds of incidents, which sometimes cost their lives, do not occur. Children often think they are immortal and invincible because they are ‘in their prime’. Parents should also check what they do in their free time, with whom they chat and especially on what topics Here, dialogue is fundamental in the relationship between parent and child, it is at any age but especially during adolescence. Technology has enslaved everyone; even children make an excessive use of mobile phones. We see them in the street, they all have their phones in their hands, and one of the things that saddens me most is to think how much and what they lose by not observing the beauty around them, whether natural or man-made. Children should live more in the real world, in contact with the nature that surrounds them, to benefit from it, and not in a virtual world that seems attractive but can have negative consequences.

And then, when they grow up, I am sure they will remember with pleasure the summer afternoons spent at the seaside enjoying a beautiful sunset, rather than the same afternoons spent staring at a screen.