An 11-year-old girl from Port Orange, Fla., was arrested Wednesday after sending police on a wild goose chase she said was inspired by a YouTube challenge.
According to the Volusia Sheriff’s Office, the girl thought the prank “would be funny.”
She first contacted the Sheriff’s Communications Center via text message at around 9:45 a.m. Wednesday, authorities said. In the message, she said her 14-year-old friend had been abducted. She described the abductor as an armed male in a white van travelling South I-95 in Oak Hill and said “she was following in a blue Jeep,” per the sheriff’s office.
For around an hour and a half, the girl sent police updates via text. These included a description of the suspect. Law enforcement from multiple communities in the Port Orange area responded to the call. However, they weren’t able to locate any suspect matching the description the girl provided.
Eventually, deputies tracked the cell phone used to text 911 to a home on Poppy Lane in Port Orange. They arrived there at around 10:23 a.m. and contacted the girl’s father, who said he was inside with his family. Deputies entered the home and found the girl holding her cell phone, which was ringing. She answered it and Volusia Sheriff’s Dispatch was on the line.
“This kind of prank activity is dangerous – we’re going to investigate every incident but today it wasted valuable resources that might have helped someone else who legitimately needed our help,” said Sheriff Mike Chitwood of the incident.
This child isn’t the first middle school age student to be motivated to make dangerous decisions by an internet challenge. In April, Audacy reported on the death of 13-year-old Jacob Stevens, who died overdosing on the allergy medication Benadryl while participating in a “challenge” circulated on the social media app TikTok.
For years, the “Tide Pod Challenge” has also been circulating on social media, calling for participants to ingest pods filled with laundry detergent. Dr. Claire McCarthy of Harvard Health Publishing wrote about the trend in 2018.
“With social media, today’s teens have potentially millions of people watching and egging them on, mostly people they didn’t choose, who are not there in person – and who have zero interest in their well-being. It’s ‘I dare you’ in proportions we can’t measure or imagine, played out in the latest ‘challenge’ (there have been plenty of them) and broadcast via their ever-present phones,” she said.
The girl was charged with making a false police report concerning the use of a firearm in a violent manner, a felony, and misuse of 911, a misdemeanor, said the sheriff’s office. After her arrest, she was transported to the Family Resource Center for processing and then transferred to the Volusia Regional Juvenile Detention Center.
“I’m telling you this right now, you’re going to take this as a lesson at 11 years old that, if you do something stupid in the future, you’re gonna enjoy those cuffs,” said a deputy in an arrest video posted to the sheriff’s office Facebook page.
“I’m not going to do this again,” said the girl.
“This is not something you’re going to carry with you for the rest of your life,” said another deputy, who said it would be a “learning experience.”
Next week, the Volusia Sheriff’s Office is hosting several community forums on how to mitigate the risks of social media.
“We can’t make social media go away, any more than we can change the adolescent brain,” said McCarthy. “We must realize that social media has changed the world adolescents are growing up in; while it has upsides like connectedness, it also can put them at risk. We need to find ways to use the power of social media for good,” she added.
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