TikTok Devious Licks Challenge Leaves Destroyed School Bathrooms In Its Trail

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This is the latest trend to go viral on Tiktok, called ‘sneaky licks’: middle school, high school and college students vandalize school property, most commonly bathrooms, and post their results on the app. social media.

TikTok quickly ended the trend, with the company removing many videos from its platform.

Search the term “Sneaky Licks” on the app now, and a message from TikTok appears: “No results found. This phrase may be associated with behavior or content that violates our guidelines. Promoting a safe and positive experience is TikTok’s top priority. For more information, we invite you to review our community guidelines. ”
“We expect our community to stay safe and create responsibly, and we do not allow content that promotes or allows criminal activity. We remove such content and redirect hashtags and search results to our guidelines. community groups to discourage such behavior, ”said a spokesperson for TikTok. CNN.

People also shared the videos on other platforms.

A quick Twitter search revealed a copious catalog of ‘sneaky licking’ videos, featuring thieves a bathroom sink and other school property.

Some bathrooms are partially closed

In response, some schools lock toilets for much of the day.
Although the intention is to prevent further acts of vandalism, it could have negative consequences, said school counselor Phyllis Fagell, author of “Middle School Matters: The 10 Key Skills Need to Thrive in Middle School and Beyond – and How Parents Can Help “.

“I have a lot of empathy for the administrators who are faced with this behavior,” Fagell said, but she warned that punishing everyone for the actions of a few students can create mistrust.

Allowing students to use the toilet whenever they want is a fundamental sign of respect, she added. “If adults want children to show respect, they have to show respect in return.”

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Some children also suffer from social anxiety and closing the toilets for part of the day could exacerbate it, said John Duffy, a clinical psychologist and family therapist in Chicago.

“Some of my socially anxious clients choose to suffer from significant discomfort rather than disrupting a classroom teacher to use the restroom for fear of social attention,” he said. If the bathroom is locked, many children will worry that the facility is not accessible to them, he added.

CNN has contacted Shakopee West Middle School in Shakopee, Minnesota, one of the schools that has partially closed their bathrooms, and is still awaiting a response.

Why students are vandalizing schools

Pre-teens and teens are vulnerable to peer pressure and are trying to establish where they fit socially, Fagell said.

Middle school students, in particular, are desperate to be accepted and may make impulsive decisions to fit in, Fagell said. They are more prone to impulsive behavior because their prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that is responsible for logical thinking, is not yet fully developed, she explained.

Over the past year, Duffy said several boys have been referred to him by schools for vandalizing property. One of the students who destroyed a bathroom admitted he didn’t want to do it but succumbed to peer pressure.

The student “felt it was wrong, but he was dared to do it by a group of classmates at a party, a group he desperately wanted to be a part of,” Duffy said.

What parents can do

It’s important for parents to be aware of social media trends like “sneaky licks,” so Duffy recommended that parents talk to their kids about their social media habits.

If parents don’t judge, their kids are likely to teach them the latest trends, giving parents an opportunity to stop their kids from making mistakes with serious consequences, he said.

Because children’s problem-solving skills are not fully developed, parents should also be role models and accompany their child through the process, Fagell said.

Parents could explain what some of the negative consequences would be if they trashed the school and provide counter-examples of why they should be doing the right thing, she said.

Parents should not underestimate the power of disappointment. “It is essential that parents say they would be very disappointed if they ever got a call saying, ‘Your child has done something to vandalize the school,'” said Fagell.



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