Trauma Therapist Slams Parents For Pranking Their Children Using The Ghost Filter On TikTok
The children don't find this funny at all.
@jvegaa / @h_e_z_y_helps / @roxx.990 / TikTok A trend circulating TikTok involving parents pranking their young children has caught the attention of a trauma therapist online.
She is warning parents that this trend is more than just a harmless prank and claims parents may be accidentally traumatizing their children for the sake of views.
The ghost prank involves scaring kids with a TikTok filter.
The “ghost prank” has generated hundreds of videos posted by parents pranking their children that there is a ghost in the room with them.
They usually place their children in a room, then quickly exit and shut the door behind them before an animated ghost with glowing red eyes appears on the screen, cackling menacingly.
Of course, the ghost is just a TikTok-generated filter and 100% fake, but most children depicted in the videos do not know that.
It usually ends with them screaming and crying for their parents, while desperately trying to open the closed door.
The trending hashtag "#Ghostprank" has garnered over 165 million views on the app.
A trauma therapist is slamming parents for subjecting their children to the ghost prank.
Most parents who post these ghost prank videos on their children believe they are pulling an innocent joke on them.
Although others are not so sure and are questioning the harmful impacts children could face as a result of this so-called “prank.”
In a video that has been viewed over half a million times, TikTok user @h_e_z_y_helps, a licensed trauma-informed therapist, explains how the new ghost prank trend is causing more harm than good.
“As a trauma-informed therapist that predominantly works with traumatized children, I am absolutely almost enraged at how many videos are under this [ghost prank] sound,” she says. “This is not a trend.”
She slams parents who are posting ghost prank videos, claiming that they are traumatizing their children just to gain more views and attention.
She also claps back at those who think that the prank is harmless.
“If you are questioning that this is not traumatizing, let’s go over the definition of trauma,” the therapist says.
“Trauma is literally any stressful or terrifying event that is overwhelming, unpredictable, and prolonged," she continues. “If we think that it’s funny to do this to our children, and post it on the Internet, what else are we doing to our kids at home?” she continues.
“Intentionally traumatizing your children should not be considered a harmless 'funny' trend!!!!” the therapist added in a text post to her video.
She warns parents not to be surprised when their children are plagued with nightmares as a result of the ghost prank.
Some TikTok users agreed with the therapist in the comments section.
“So glad more and more people are speaking out about this,” one user wrote.
“Kids depend on parents to protect them and keep safe. Not leave them in a room to be terrified. Notice they all run to the door to be saved,” another user pointed out.
However, others believed that the ghost prank has no long-lasting effects on children and that it was a mild joke.
“My parents used to scare me all the time when I was little as a joke. It’s ok ma’am. Not everything is C.A. [child abuse],” one user commented.
The therapist responded back, commenting, “So your experience justifies parents doing this to small children? Not everyone is fine but ok that’s pretty callous.”
“Life is trauma,” another user wrote. “So if we go to a haunted house is that trauma? What about roller coasters! Smh [shaking my head].”
The therapist replied to this comment with a video.
“To be clear, I’m not trying to 'cancel' Halloween," she wrote, recognizing the difference between willingly going into a haunted house for fun and unwillingly participating in a horrifying prank.
“Just stop traumatizing your kids for entertainment K…ok,” she said.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.