Tiktok’s tremendous popularity may have indirectly saved a little girl’s life.
According to Mashable, a TikTok trend assisted in the rescue of a 16-year-old girl who went missing in North Carolina lately. Last Thursday, the girl was discovered in Kentucky with an adult man, who has now been arrested.
After purportedly identifying a hand signal that recently went viral on the social media app TikTok, a 911 caller informed authorities.
The 911 caller allegedly drove by a vehicle in which the girl was a passenger, making hand signals by the window and requesting assistance. The gesture is made by putting out your hand to anyone who can assist you, tucking your thumb into it, and then closing your fingers.
The 911 call was utilized by authorities to track down and stop the vehicle. The 16-year-old has reportedly been reported missing by her parents since last Tuesday, November 2nd.
The hand signal denoted “domestic abuse” or “violence at home,” and it was supposedly “first presented” on Instagram by the Canadian Women’s Foundation.
According to the original Mashable post, the viral TikTok fad has attracted millions of views thus far.
According to Fox8, an investigation discovered that 61-year-old James Herbert Brick transported the kid from North Carolina to Ohio, where Brick supposedly had family.
Furthermore, the investigators revealed that a photo of a teenage girl depicted in a “sexual manner” was discovered on a phone that Brick was carrying.
The suspect has since been charged with unlawful confinement and possession of material depicting sex practices by a juvenile.
Is there now a ‘good’ TikTok trend?
TikTok is full of videos that discuss things like life hacks that can potentially save someone’s life in an emergency. Some of them have been deceptive, while others appear to be truly helpful.
On YouTube, the Laurel County Sheriff performed the domestic violence hand motion that saved the girl:
Domestic violence, particularly against women, continues to be a major issue all across the world. According to World Health Organization statistics, nearly one in every three women has experienced physical/sexual or mental abuse. That equates to nearly 30% of all women worldwide.
Trends on TikTok are still hit-or-miss
While it’s great that this particular trend saved the life of a little child, the issue remains: many of TikTok’s trends have made news for being plain deadly.
One of these is the “Dry Scooping Challenge,” in which users are “challenged” to ingest pre-workout powder without combining it with water. When this practice began to gain popularity last month, numerous experts warned of the potential health consequences.
This is why, on October 26, the US Senate summoned the popular social media network, along with YouTube and Snapchat, for a hearing. The corporations were questioned during the hearing about how they could protect their young consumers.