While the summer holidays are in full swing and the sun hits hard, a new very dangerous fashion is all the rage on Tiktok. To the point that the Minister of Health sounds an emergency alarm.
If you use Tiktok, you must be used to watching trends and other viral challenges on the social network. If many remain harmless – beauty trends, culinary challenges, choreographies -, some can however be much more dangerous. There is no longer the number of challenges that regularly make the buzz, such as the Blackout Challenge – which consists in filming itself strangling to the fainting and which cost the life of at least seven children – or the Zizi Challenge – which encourages the Young children to exhibit their sex in videos.
Each summer, a new particularly harmful trend makes its comeback: the burn lines. Its principle is simple: deliberately provoke sunburn and expose them proudly on social networks, to show that we have sunny. It would be neither more nor less than “tanning in the making”. Worse, some users go so far as to share their “routine” to obtain successful burns, such as leaving without sun protection when the UV index is between 7 and 11, using an autobronizing oil to strengthen brands and even brush with olive oil to improve the “tan”. In short, only disastrous advice.
On the same principle, the trend of sun tattoo, Or “Sun tattoo”, consists in making drawings on your body with sunscreen or sticking stickers on the skin in order to keep track, in a kind of ephemeral tattoo.
Another dangerous trend: Homemade solar creams. Many Internet users indeed share their “recipes” to obtain a product supposed to be healthier and cheaper, often based on coconut oil, sweet almond, shea butter or even zinc oxide … It is however simply impossible to make it yourself, because the process of making this product is too complex to be reproduced at home.
Mistrust also in the face of solar creams sold online on platforms like Aliexpress, Shein, Temu or Tiktok Shop, offered at unbeatable prices, because it is at your own risk! Indeed, they are often unknown marks, without CE marking, or with delirious information, such as an index 90! You will then find yourself either with a dangerous product, or without anything at all, since it can also be a scam intended to steal your money.
These practices can smile, but they are so popular on social networks that The Minister of Health, Yannick Neuder, had to sound the alarm this Monday, July 28: “Your skin is your life”he warns in a prevention video. Because to expose yourself to UV without protection is to take risks to your health. In addition to the fact that sunburns are painful, they can cause scars, lead to premature aging of the skin and, above all, promote cancers. According to Public Health France, 141,200 to 243,500 skin cancers are diagnosed each year in France, including 112,960 to 194,800 caused by excessive UV exposure. An expensive price paid for a few minutes of popularity!
