Over the past couple months, teens have been seen all over social media ingesting Tide Pods; it has been coined “The Tide Pod Challenge.” This has caught lots of media attention considering how strange it sounds. Surprisingly, people have mentioned eating Tide Pods since 2012. The origins of this challenge are unclear, but jokes have circulated online because of the pod’s resemblance to brightly colored candy. New York Senator Chuck Schumer once said that he was tempted to eat a pod because of its bright colors, according to The Daily News.

“I don’t know why they make them look so delicious,” he said.

The core attraction of Tide Pod memes seemed to be the same thing that attracted people to many memes: its relatability. People like to realize that they are not alone in the world, and their odd thoughts are shared with a large scale of people. In reality, the jokes about eating Tide Pods are just that: jokes.  People are not really eating Tide Pods, and the people who are “eating” them are just biting into them and spitting them out. People have misconstrued the Tide Pod Challenge for teens actually eating Tide Pods and getting some kind of high from it.

Even though people are only biting into Tide Pods, according to the New York Times, “in the first half of January, poison control centers handled 39 cases in which teenagers were intentionally exposed to the detergent packets. That was as many as in all of 2016.”

The problem is more serious for young children.

According to The Washington Post, “Last year, U.S. poison control centers received reports of more than 10,500 children younger than 5 who were exposed to the capsules. . . . Since 2012, eight fatalities have been reported among children 5 and younger.”

This makes more sense because young children do not know any better. Teenagers should have the common sense to know not to chew or eat a Tidepod. Spokeswoman for Proctor & Gamble, Tide’s parent company, Petra Renck commented on people’s recent use of Tide Pods.

“They should not be played with, whatever the circumstance, even if meant as a joke. Like all household cleaning products, they must be used properly and stored safely,” Renck said.

Accordingly to New York Magazine, “Tide’s Twitter presence is now to be dedicated mostly to advising people on how to immediately mitigate consumed detergent and contact a poison-control center. Whether or not the people asking for help actually ate a Tide Pod is beside the point — as a corporate entity, Tide can’t afford to try to separate pranksters from people who might truly need help.”

YouTube has also pledged to remove videos of people eating laundry pods, citing terms of use that prohibit “dangerous activities that have an inherent risk of physical harm.”

Twitter and Youtube are handling the situation well considering how odd it is. They are doing what they can to steer people away from this dangerous activity.

If you or someone is exposed to detergent, it is important to reach a medical expert right away, either by contacting a poison control center or a doctor. The American Association of Poison Control Centers also maintains a hotline, 1-800-222-1222, where experts are always available to field questions. You can also text “poison” to 797979 for assistance.