Buzz
The world presents numerous dangers, particularly for children. Their small physiques and overly trusting nature often leave them ill-prepared to face the challenges life throws their way, sometimes quite literally. However, it’s not just external threats like vehicles, firearms, or abductions that pose risks; often, the games they play can be equally perilous.
Many of the games children create for playgrounds or at home are astonishingly risky in their design. The online challenges they participate in can be even more hazardous. Surprisingly, even some commercially produced, high-budget games marketed to kids can be among the most dangerous. The ways in which children can be harmed seem endless. While some injuries are part of growing up, like scrapes from falling off a bike, others can have far more severe consequences.
With this in mind, here’s a list of ten of the riskiest games ever created, sold, or played by children.
10. Hannah Montana Pop Star Card Game
Let’s start by debunking a myth. In 2007, the Hannah Montana Pop Star Card Game was removed from stores, sparking widespread media attention. Since then, it has frequently appeared on lists of dangerous toys and games. Yes, it’s still hazardous. Tests revealed its paint contained a shocking 3,056 parts per million (ppm) of lead, which is 76 times higher than the recommended limit of 40 ppm.
This seemingly innocent party game for tweens is a serious health hazard.
However, it’s just one example of the 35% of children’s products (yes, you read that correctly) found to contain lead during that testing period. Backpacks featuring Diego—Dora the Explorer’s oddly unsettling cousin—were also recalled but didn’t receive the same media backlash. The same applies to several block-stacking games for toddlers, but Miley Cyrus, as usual, bore the brunt of public criticism.
9. Aqua Dots
Staying on the topic of recalls, we can’t overlook Aqua Dots, also known as Bindeez or Aqua Beads. While primarily a toy rather than a game (noted, pedants), children turned it into a game: See Who Can Go the Longest Without Getting Drugged.
The Dots were manufactured using an incorrect plasticizer, the substance responsible for their soft texture. The chemical accidentally used converts into GHB—commonly referred to as the date-rape drug—when ingested. While you might think, ‘just don’t swallow them,’ the product was marketed to children aged four and older. Convincing a 4-year-old to resist eating one of the hundreds of tiny, brightly colored beads is nearly impossible.
In 2015, the manufacturer faced a lawsuit from parents of affected children and lost. Today, searching for Aqua Dots on Google brings up results like “Aqua Dots loses lawsuit over date-rape-drug poisoning.” Ouch.
8. Roblox
You might not be familiar with Roblox, but your children certainly are. Statistically, it seems every child on the planet knows about it. Roblox is one of the most downloaded apps globally, with around 40 million users, mostly young kids, playing it daily. It’s an online platform where kids engage with a virtual world, interact with each other, and, unfortunately, encounter numerous child predators.
In one instance, an adult contacted an 11-year-old on Roblox, threatening harm to them and their family unless they sent explicit photos. In another case, an adult man received inappropriate images from an 8-year-old girl in exchange for in-game currency. Roblox, like many online multiplayer games aimed at children, introduces a new kind of danger.
7. Any Eating Challenge
When it comes to risky online games kids engage in, eating challenges top the list. These include the infamous cinnamon challenge, the gallon challenge, and the Tide Pod Challenge, among others. What they all share is the dangerous goal of consuming something toxic or in excessive quantities. These challenges spread rapidly as users dare others or mimic what they’ve seen online—despite being utterly senseless.
The Tide Pod Challenge, which involves ingesting laundry detergent, has claimed at least eight lives, primarily children and young adults. While not fatal, the cinnamon challenge has hospitalized numerous kids, causing lung damage and even collapsed lungs. The gallon challenge, where participants drink an entire gallon of liquid within a set time, has resulted in at least two deaths.
6. Car Surfing
Car surfing is exactly as it sounds: standing on top of a moving vehicle as if it were a surfboard. This isn’t just a bizarre scene from the 1985 movie “Teen Wolf.” For years, kids have actually attempted this, sometimes for fun and sometimes as a reckless competition (essentially vying for a Darwin Award).
This dangerous activity has become so widespread and lethal that the CDC published a detailed report in 2008 (for reasons unknown). The study revealed that between 1990 and 2008, 41 people were injured while car surfing, and 58 lost their lives. Nearly all victims were teenagers (their werewolf status remains unconfirmed).
5. Blue Whale
The Blue Whale Challenge, often referred to as Blue Whale, consists of a sequence of tasks. Reportedly, a game runner (typically a preteen or teenager) assigns the player one challenge per day for 50 days. The tasks start off harmless but gradually escalate to criminal acts, self-harm, and culminate in suicide on the final day.
Initially, many were skeptical about the connection between suicides and the game, as the evidence was largely anecdotal. However, as the game gained a cult-like following online and inspired imitators, the once-doubted myth of the Blue Whale became a grim reality, though not as widespread as initially believed.
4. Atomic Energy Laboratory
After discussing lead and GHB, we complete the toxic trio with the Atomic Energy Laboratory, which might as well have been titled: Hollow Bones Made Fun! Created by renowned inventor Alfred Carlton Gilbert, the AEL aimed to strengthen the “solid American character” of future generations by selling educational toys. While the intention was noble, providing children with uranium to experiment with was a grave error.
The AEL was a compact chemistry and physics lab kit that let children interact with radioactive elements like uranium, ruthenium, polonium, and lead. The packaging even encouraged kids to “play hide and seek with the gamma-ray source” by concealing radioactive materials in their rooms and locating them using a Geiger counter.
3. Baseball
Surprisingly, baseball is the deadliest game for children. While it may sound unbelievable, it’s a fact. Although sports like football and basketball cause more injuries, baseball has the highest fatality rate among children.
In 2009, Stanford University analyzed sports-related injuries in children. They discovered that in just one year, nearly 110,000 kids were hospitalized due to baseball injuries, and baseball had the highest fatality rate among all sports. Nationwide Children’s Hospital confirmed similar statistics, noting that these injuries occur annually. The primary causes? Being struck by the ball or the bat.
2. Lawn Darts
This is the quintessential example. No discussion of deadly games is complete without mentioning lawn darts, later rebranded as Jarts. Initially, these darts closely resembled traditional pub darts but were five times larger and ten times heavier. They were used in a game similar to cornhole, but with significantly more injuries.
As everyone now realizes, handing children oversized, sharp, metal darts to throw is a disastrous idea. Before their eventual ban, they caused thousands of injuries and even resulted in the deaths of several children. They were later rebranded as Jarts and fitted with round plastic tips, but the harm had already been done.
1. Any Game with Toy Guns
It might seem obvious that giving functional guns to children is a terrible idea. Even cap guns, pellet guns, and paintball guns fire real, non-Nerf projectiles capable of causing serious injury or even death.
The Austin Magic Pistol, a toy gun from the 1940s, is perhaps the most notorious of its kind. Unlike traditional toy guns, its danger lay not in the ammunition—ping pong balls—but in its firing mechanism. The gun utilized calcium carbide pellets, which, when mixed with moisture like a child’s saliva or tears, would expand and explode, scattering fragments of the gun in all directions. Unsurprisingly, such a hazardous device in the hands of a child often led to disastrous consequences.
Additionally, there have been numerous incidents where toy guns were mistaken for real firearms. Tragically, this confusion has resulted in injuries and even fatalities, particularly when individuals believed they were facing a genuine threat and responded with real weapons. Airsoft guns, which fire small pellets, are among the most frequently misidentified.
