The latest dangerous social media trend that ‘gamifies’ deadly driving

Since schools are closed for the summer and many young people are unemployed, August is usually one of the busiest months of the year for police.

Some young people are drawn to viral and often dangerous social media challenges sparked by social media, such as the “blackout challenge” where users choke themselves or the “teen takeovers” that have sparked curfews across the United States.

However, a new, risky trend has surfaced in Britain and Ireland this summer. One in which groups of largely young males record what are known as “wrong-way” driving videos, which they then upload to the internet.

Following a series of fatal collisions in the UK and Ireland with people driving cars the wrong way down major roads, the British government called on social media companies on Monday to delete videos that promote reckless driving.

As a result, local authorities have warned that social media “likes” are taking precedence over the safety of innocent people, and internet corporations have come under fire due to instances of viral film showing reckless driving going viral online.

The precise causes of the most recent crashes are being investigated by authorities.

In one incident over the weekend, a car on the wrong side of the road collided with a marked police cruiser near Middlesbrough, northern England, killing two police officers and five young people.

According to authorities, the five people inside the Volkswagen Passat ranged in age from 17 to 23. According to the BBC, a video shows him and four other young people engaged in what seems to be a police car chase was posted on a now-deleted TikTok account that is thought to belong to one of the adolescents who perished in the collision in March 2025.

According to the BBC, a speedometer appears to be reading 100 mph (160 kph) in another video posted by the same person.

The bravery of the two police officers who lost their lives—Matthew Blades, 37, and Tom Clough, 38—was quickly honored.

Later on Monday, police announced that they had made 12 arrests as part of an investigation into criminal conduct that took place before the collision. According to authorities, there were multiple reports of two cars being driven recklessly, one of which was allegedly “ramming properties.

Warning to tech companies

Luke Pollard, the British minister of defense, urged social media companies on Monday to take down video that depicts dangerous driving, such as vehicles going “down the wrong side of the roads.

Pollard told the BBC, “There’s a lot of content online on social media platforms of people celebrating dangerous driving, celebrating driving inappropriately on our roads, down the wrong side of the roads, and behaving incredibly badly.\

Pollard stated, “We’ve already spoken to those companies as a government, telling them that we’ll use the powers in the Online Safety Act” to guarantee that bad content is removed. Pollard was alluding to UK legislation that requires digital companies to safeguard consumers from harmful and illegal content.

Later, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham declared that sharing videos that celebrate reckless driving is “doing something that’s truly reprehensible.

Social media behemoth TikTok responded to the most recent collapse by saying it was keeping a careful eye on any online content connected to the event and that it was eliminating accounts and videos that violated the company’s policies.

According to the website of Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, content that encourages “high-risk viral challenges” is eliminated, and under-18s are not allowed to view images of careless driving that could result in fatalities or serious injuries, “unless shared in fictional or professional settings.

‘Irresponsible and dangerous’

Local authorities have discussed the risks of the social media trend in light of multiple prior fatal auto accidents, so the tragedy near Middlesbrough is not unique.

Five teens were murdered in a two-vehicle collision in Ireland earlier in August after driving a car down an expressway in the incorrect direction. The second car included a boy and three ladies who were hospitalized with severe injuries.

Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly, the chief of Irish police, expressed his condolences to the injured and stated that the tragedy demonstrated how “irresponsible and dangerous driving on the wrong side of the expressway is.

Kelly stated at the time, “What makes this reckless behavior even more appalling is that in some cases it is being done for social media likes regardless of the potentially devastating impact it might have on innocent people and themselves.

Additionally, earlier this month, a car carrying eight boys struck head-on with another vehicle while traveling north on the southbound carriageway of an expressway near Dublin, causing significant injuries. As a result, Irish police issued a call for witnesses.

Irish broadcaster RTÉ reported on Monday that 62 incidents of people driving the wrong way down freeways have been reported in Ireland so far this year, citing the body that oversees Ireland’s roads and public transport networks. This is 32% more than the same period last year. However, the exact extent of the social media trend is still unknown.

Although driving carelessly is not a novel practice, it may now be “recorded and broadcast to millions for views, for likes, and for followers.” Therefore, the content becomes dangerous, according to Mary Aiken, a cyberpsychology professor at Capital Technology University in Washington, DC.

According to Aiken, who spoke with CNN, recording dangerous driving gives the driver a “perceived distance from real-world danger.” She stated, “I think that what they’re doing starts to feel like a game or a live performance, and the likes, views, and follower counts provide visible and immediate social rewards.

According to Aiken, who spoke with CNN, recording dangerous driving gives the driver a “perceived distance from real-world danger.
According to TikTok, it uses a variety of methods, including as human moderation, detecting technologies, and user reporting, to eliminate content that celebrates violence or encourages criminal activity.

According to the corporation, 99.1% of the content that was removed between January and March of this year for breaking its policy on violent and criminal behavior was done so before it was reported to them.

‘An adored son and brother’

The police commissioner for Cleveland, where the Middlesbrough collision took place, Matt Storey, warned that any filming while driving was “absolutely ridiculous” and “idiotic,” even if he said it was too early to comment on the cause of the tragedy.

He told BBC Radio 4, “It is a concerning situation if that is becoming more prevalent because it is incredibly dangerous social media.

Before he could “understand what precisely happened in the tragedy here,” Pollard continued, he wanted to see the results of the police inquiry.

Clough’s family praised him as a “hero” who was “willing to help anyone for any reason” in police-released tributes to the cops murdered, while Blades’ wife called him “an adored son and brother, a perfect son-in-law and the most fun uncle.