However, you could be sent to prison.

According to a TikTok challenge, October is "Smack a Staff Member on the Backside" month.

Schools all over the country have warned parents and teachers that the "Devious Licks Challenge" is about to take on a new, and more sinister, stage.

September's challenge, which asked students to vandalize school bathroom facilities, was a big hit. It went beyond just dumping wet toilet tissue on the ceiling. Mirrors were broken, paper towel dispensers and ceiling tiles were pulled down, ceiling tiles were removed and stall doors were taken down. Whole sinks were even stolen.

After sustaining thousands of dollars of damage, many schools had to close their bathrooms. In Florida, at least nine students were charged with vandalism and were taken into custody.

Now that October is here, participants in the Devious Licks Challenge may face more serious charges: assault or sexual assault.

Although August challenged TikTokers to sleep in and be late on August's list, the complete list shows that TikTokers have been engaging in criminal behavior in subsequent months. This includes January's request to "jab a breast", and December's challenge for TikTokers not to show their genitalia to school.

The November "Kiss your friends' girl at school" event is not likely to go well.

PARENTS AND TEACHERS WARNING: We have been hearing a lot about the TikTok "devious lick challenge" where students destroy school bathrooms. We now see each month's challenge. Teachers are sharing this list to spread awareness. @wcnc pic.twitter.com/tTvuMGWGA2

-- Sarah French (@SarahSFrench), September 28, 2021

School authorities are concerned about October's slap a teacher dare. According to law enforcement, however, it is not the participants that should be concerned. WJHG was informed by Mike Jones, Chief of the Bay County District Police in Florida. "Most of those em on that list are criminal offenses."

Sheriff Tommy Ford said, "We're going have to make charges for those types of things." It's not funny, and if we don’t set that standard then things get outof control."

He stated that touching or striking someone could result in a misdemeanor conviction. "But, when you deal with a school employee, there is a specific statute that makes it a felony."

Although police are not going to throw students in prison, they warn that perpetrators may be held responsible if the trend continues to spread virally. This is just like September's.

In Illinois, Professor Brian Uzzi of Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management stated that TikTok was responsible in stopping the trend.

This is considered criminal behavior. Vandalism is a criminal offense. Inappropriate touching of another person is criminal behavior. He said that using fire extinguishers as a joke in the middle of class is criminal behavior." "I think TikTok needs to be more assertive and shut down this as quickly as possible," he said.

TikTok seems to have at most shut down "Devious Licks" as a search term; the app returns zero results and displays the message "This phrase could be associated with content or behavior that violates our guidelines." TikTok's top priority is to promote a safe, positive experience.

These steps can be quickly reverted to using alternative spellings and hashtags (just search for #dispicablelicks in TikTok).

Uzzi believes that the company's minimal efforts are inadequate.

He said, "It's almost like telling a herd if buffalo to stop, that you're telling them to stop doing this." He said that it was illegal for a company profiting from criminal activity. This raises the question, is TikTok complicit in this crime?

TooFab was told by a spokesperson for TikTok that they are aware of potential offline teen dares. However, it is important to make clear that illegal and dangerous behavior will not be allowed on the platform. We expect teens to be polite online as well as offline, and we are committed to supporting messages about digital stewardship.

The company points out its TikTok Guide for Parents (which explains the app's safety features); its Guardian's Guide, which assists parents to review and adjust teenagers' privacy settings and report inappropriate behavior; its Youth Portal, which helps teens learn more about digital safety and its Family Pairing feature. This allows parents and guardians to link their TikTok accounts to their teen's TikTok account in order to manage content and privacy settings.

The company stated that it doesn't allow content that encourages or facilitates criminal activity regarding Devious Licks. It stated that it was removing the content and redirecting search results and hashtags to our Community Guidelines in an effort to discourage this behavior.

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Title: October is 'Smack a Teacher' Month, According to Ongoing TikTok Challenge
Sourced From: toofab.com/2021/09/30/october-is-smack-a-teacher-month-according-to-upcoming-tiktok-challenge/
Published Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2021 23:32:19 +0000

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