What happened in Palmerston North with the death of this young man was an absolute tragedy.

We don't know exactly what happened here, other than it was linked to another viral challenge. 

The sad reality is stuff like this will happen again. And again. And again. 

The campaigners and professionals will warn about the dangers. 

And then kids will be kids, and another craze will come along and somebody else will get hurt or worse.

Ten years ago… remember planking?

The came skin art, where young people paint sunscreen on some parts of their bodies and burn the rest in the sun. 

An American family lost their son to the infamous blackout challenge, where kids choke themselves or their friends for fun.

For ages teenagers, especially boys, have played bullrush, drank to excess, and driven cars way too fast.

Frontal lobes don’t develop properly until age 25. That’s when reason overtakes risk in the brain. Behaviour changes.

If you ask me honestly if society can ever prevent these tragedies from happening again, I’d say look at the numbers, the trends and social media algorithms.

But more than that, that overwhelming urge to, when you’re young, experiment with danger. To push the boundaries in life. To just goof off with your mates.

That primal urge has existed since the beginning of time and doesn’t appear to be going anywhere in a hurry. 

All we can do as individuals is offer our sincere condolences to this poor family and hope that others learn a lesson from his death. 

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