A new TikTok trend could be a risk to kids as parents have been warned to be cautious of their children carrying it out.
Kids around the world could be at risk, as 12-year-old Sophie-Rose Owen was said to be 'scarred for life' after undertaking the viral trend, her mum Emma-Louise revealed.
The 34-year-old mother from Cardiff said that she felt like a 'terrible parent' after she rushed her daughter to hospital with injuries following the trend.
Sophie-Rose tried to take part in a popular TikTok trend by attempting to make a treat by heating sugar and water in a microwave, then coating fruit in the sticky substance to make it crunchy as a sweet snack.
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Apparently, Sophie filled a jug with sugar and water and heated it in the microwave for two minutes, as instructed.
But when she tried to take it out, the boiling syrup mixture burned through the bottom of the jug, which then dripped across her hands and feet, causing the girl to scream out in agony.
Her mother ran downstairs to the horror scene and was shocked to see what was going on.
Emma-Louise stated: “There was a trail of syrup on the floor in the kitchen. She was screaming 'burn, burn, burn' and I said 'put your hand in cold water'.
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“Then a massive blister formed on her foot instantly."
The mother said that she felt 'terrible', as they rushed her to a nearby hospital, as she later explained: “Sophie had seen this new trend on TikTok - all her friends were doing it.
“I'd seen it on social media, celebrities had been doing it and it looked good."
Emma explained that she didn't allow her daughter to use the oven, which was what most people were doing, but allowed her to use the microwave after she was shown a video of it being done in one.
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She was on the phone at the time, and so relented and simply told Sophie to 'be careful', later admitting: “I didn't understand the actual context of it and I do feel like a terrible parent."
The mother revealed that her husband's 'face dropped' after he ran downstairs to discover the stunt gone wrong.
Emma said: "My husband came downstairs and I told him she'd done this trend with sugar water and his face just dropped. He said this is what they use in prisons to scar people."
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Shockingly, he was right - the method is known as a 'prison napalm', a technique used as a weapon by prisoners as the liquid sticks to the skin and causes severe burns.
The mother called for TikTok to start including disclaimers in trending videos to warn parents about how dangerous they can be.
"Kids just absorb everything from online. This could've been so much worse,
"I wanted to let other parents know the dangers of this. I don't want this happening to another person's child," she concluded.
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TikTok explained to LADbible that candied fruit recipes have existed on the internet long before the app existed, citing cooking shows and recipes from Tesco, BBC and AllRecipes, and said that it doesn't mean that injuries sustained are these organisations' responsibilities.
While TikTok welcomes cooking and recipe videos, they also re-iterated that the app is strictly a 13+ platform, even requiring people to fill in their complete date of birth to authenticate their account.
They remind users that if someone that makes an account and doesn't meet the age requirement, they will be suspended from creating another account with a different date of birth.
Joshua Nair