At least 82 children have died in recent years as a result of playing the “choking” game, a bizarre but increasingly common practice, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The game, which involves intentionally trying to choke oneself to create a brief high, has been around for years, but it appears to be spreading. One theory is that the Internet has made it easier for kids to learn about the game. A search of YouTube turns up several videos warning about the practice, but also several troubling demonstrations by giggling adolescents showing how to play.
The deaths identified by the C.D.C. are based on media reports of the game over the past decade, but more than 60 of the deaths have occurred since 2005. The agency says the number of deaths is probably understated, and other experts agree, noting that choking game deaths, which involve accidental strangulation with a rope or belt, often look like suicides.
The Web site GASP, which stands for Games Adolescents Shouldn’t Play, reports that 65 children died in 2007 alone. Mark Lepore, an assistant professor of counseling psychology at Chatham College in Pittsburgh, told The Houston Press last year that he believed 1,800 people in the United States had died playing the game in the past 10 years; most were children and teenagers.
The C.D.C. reports that most adults haven’t even heard of the choking game and have no idea their kids are playing it. Most of the deaths were among boys ages 11 to 16, and the average age was 13, the report said. Choking game deaths were identified in 31 states. “Because most parents in the study had not heard of the choking game, we hope to raise awareness of the choking game among parents, health care providers, and educators, so they can recognize warning signs of the activity,” said Robin L. Toblin, the study’s lead author. “This is especially important because children themselves may not appreciate the dangers of this activity.”
The game can be played in a variety of ways, but the goal is to deprive the brain of oxygen long enough to create a feeling of euphoria before passing out. Children may use their hands to squeeze the necks of friends, or they may use computer cord, scarves or ropes. In another version, kids bend down and try to induce hyperventilation by taking deep breaths followed by a “bear hug” from a friend. The game is not the same thing as autoerotic asphyxiation, another risky behavior that tends to be practiced by older teens and adults, in which masturbation and asphyxia are combined to achieve a more powerful orgasm.
In addition to discussing the dangers of the game with their children, parents should look for signs that kids may be playing. The game has several aliases. Parents should listen for names like Blackout, Flatliner, Fainting Game, California Choke, Dream Game, Airplaning, Suffocation Roulette, Space Cowboy and the Pass-Out Game.
Signs that a child may be engaging in the choking game include bloodshot eyes; marks on the neck; severe headaches; disorientation after spending time alone; ropes, scarves and belts tied to bedroom furniture or doorknobs or found knotted on the floor; or the unexplained presence of things like dog leashes, choke collars and bungee cords.
To learn more, read the full Houston Press story from April here. Or visit the GASP Web site here.
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From 1 to 25 of 169 Comments
When we prohibit relatively safe ways of getting high, we should not be surprised that teens turn to the dangerous ways of getting high.
— Denis GoddardHow do the researchers distinguish between choking to get high, versus choking with the intent to kill oneself, in situations when the adolescent is alone?
— L.M.Mr. Lepore estimates 1800 deaths due to the “choking” game, but couldn’t it be confounded by this suicide factor?
I wish I had known how dangerous the “game” was when I was younger. From time to time we would play the “Fainting Game”. I know now when I have children that I will do my best to convince them that this is not a game to play.
— GregEvery parents worst nightmare…the idiotic and senseless loss of a child. I shudder at the thought that my 13 y.o. son is now at the age of experimentation with everything…drugs, smoking, dinking, sex, and stupid acts like intentional choking.
BUT!!! Please stop calling it a “game.” The kids may call it that, but we don’t have to. Just as the Republicans called the Estate Tax the “Death Tax,” (and it caught on) so too should we give our own moniker to this crazy practice and hope that it takes hold. Who can come up with a good name for this that would be catchy with the kids?
From TPP — I see your point, but I also think that with kids, it’s important to speak their language to reach them. Also, in terms of informing parents, they need to know this is the language they will hear — choking game, space cowboy or whatever it is…they need to know the language of their children. So I think it’s pretty important that this story and future stories continue to refer to it this way.
— Michael CNatural selection at work…
From TPP — I find this incredibly insensitive. We are talking about children here.
— JakeNatural selection continues to thin the herd. This will help the US increase our overall intelligence, vis a vis Sue Jacoby’s book about the age of American unreason.
Chaz, HMS Beagle
— Chuck DarwinThis is epidemiology as entertainment.
Let’s assume these numbers are reasonable estimates.
How do the numbers compare to the numbers in the same sex and age cohorts, during the same periods of time, killed by prescription drugs? Alcohol overdoses? Accidental gunshot injuries? Suicide?
From TPP — So because the numbers are small we should ignore them? As a parent, I’m grateful for the information.
— Youssef51Sounds like a much need thinning of the gene pool
— Cvery popular amongst the children in tony New Vernon (Harding Twp) NJ. Sad that their parents only have the kiddies as furniture or adornments for their empty lives.
— wbYahoo’s Groups, Chat Rooms and of course Photo Sharing (now called Flickr) have promoted and glorified this abominable pastime among the S&M crowd for years. The older masters allowed on these social networks regularly attempt to recruit kids into being victims. Goth and Emo are just more ways that sick sado-masochist weirdos try to gain access to your children, getting them to self-mutilate or kill themselves. People need to wake up to the kind of things that have been going on in corporate owned online venues for years now, negligently run by large and trusted, NCMEC affiliated corporations like Yahoo. These “masters” are preying on our kids everyday thanks to the irresponsible actions of companies like Yahoo, who help them hide on social networks so they can monetize those better. They are killing our children, or having them kill themselves, for fun and profit. Don’t let Yahoo pull this kind of stuff on their online properties, like Flickr.
— FedUpDarwinism at its best. While it’s horrible that parents would lose a child for something so stupid, I have serious doubts that a tween playing this game has much of a future anyway.
From TPP — I usually like hearing from readers, but I am horrified that so many are echoing this viewpoint. Are you telling me you never did anything stupid as a kid? Plenty of smart wonderful children with potential get caught up in stupid things.
— GrampsThere is a certain Darwinian elegance, though.
— KevinIs this evolution at work? Hard to feel sympathy for such obviously self destructive behavior. Sad…
— DaveI remember being in elementary school in the late 80’s and guys talking about this in the locker room. It’s not new… Just very, very unfortunate.
— SamS.This was a problem well before 2005. I was in middle school between 1991-1994 over 13 years ago and this was going on back then. I never participated but to say this a new thing is false.
— ChrisI remember watching the hyperventilation version of this on a playground in 1958.
— j21064This is nothing new. I played passout in the 1970’s. A friend broke his jaw when he passed out and the guy squeezing him from behind dropped him. I just spoke with a coworker and he said he had heard of friends doing it when he was in high school in the early 80’s. My coworker and I grew up in different areas of the country. Eighty two deaths is not very many out of the millions of children who have tried to passout. I would guess more children have died from being stabbed in the left eye in the last 13 years. I know alot more than that die every year in the bathtub.
— Robertthis is CRAZY! ppl just do anything to get off!
— lydiaKids have been doing this for at least 20 years - I remember us getting a warning about not doing it about then. But if the CDC doesn’t think parents are aware of the temptation, then kudos to them for bringing it up so publicly.
— Gari N. CorpI did this when I was about 13 - we used to do it at all-girl slumber parties. I just turned 40 and am surprised to hear it’s still around. The feeling it induces is a kind of euphoria, and your body tingles all over. It only lasts for about 15 seconds, then it’s gone. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that it can be fatal - I wish someone had told me that when I was 13. No one I know was hurt, but they could have been. I hope parents will talk to their kids about it even if they have no reason to suspect they are doing it.
— libbertinePeople don’t understand the epidemic of childhood boredom. It’s pretty serious. So serious, in fact, that kids are choking themselves FOR FUN.
Listen, I did it once, too. I was about 12 or 13. And it worked! I passed out and I was high as a kite when I woke up. What happened in between, though…
There was a bright light, and I thought I was at home in bed, ready for a cool dream (I wasn’t - I was at summercamp and the last thing I saw was my friend choking me). There was a black figure who, no kidding, looked like the proverbial Death. He came from the side of my vision, to the center, and approached me. As he stood right in front of me, I heard my sister’s voice scream “Jonathan!” and I woke up, confused, seeing forrest instead of my bedroom. Apparently I’d been having seizure-like spasms for the past 8 seconds, longer than anyone had been ‘out.’ I’m 24, now, but who knows. May have caused permanent brain damage for all I know.
— jon_gripI echo TPP’s sentiments. If everyone just wants to call these kids stupid, how does this address a very serious issue that no one is taking very seriously?
Kids deem it harmless.
That’s right - these kids have learned to deem choking themselves harmless. Why? They watch their friends do it first, see them wake up and act fine, and then they do it too. That’s how/why I did it. What’s so stupid about that?
— jon_gripI played this game as a teenager while in Boy Scouts.
We played at Boy Scout camp. We were in a cabin but there were no adults in our cabin. Adults were in adjacent cabins but not nearby. We had maybe 20 boys in this cabin. The first couple of boys that did it, were trying to get the reluctant others to do it. I must admit, it was bizarre, watching the first couple guys who did it. At first, I thought the first couple of guys who came up with the idea were just playing a joke on the rest of us and the whole thing was faked. We used the hyperventilation and bear hug technique rather than a cord around the neck. Since I thought these guys were faking, I agreed to let them do it to me. My idea was to prove to the rest of the group that this wasn’t possible and these guys were scamming us and faking passing out. Well, after hyperventilating, I received the bear hug. My last thought before passing out was: “see you guys, it isn’t working, this is fake”……I dont know how long I was gone, but, when I woke up, everyone was shrieking and laughing at me, because, in fact, I had passed out. I did feel the euphoria, and the way we described the feeling to each other was: “when you wake up you feel refreshed, like you’ve been sleeping for 100 years”. One idea behind it also was that after passing out, we would not need to sleep and could stay up all night. We had to stop the whole thing when we really got scared after the next boy after me who did it. He was smaller and slighter in frame/physique than me and he went down hard and fast. But, when he woke up he didn’t know where he was and was so frightened he bolted for the door of the cabin and took off into the woods. We had to chase him down and bring him back into the cabin. It was winter and he had no clothing on for going outside in the snow, but he did anyway. It took us a while to convince him that he was OK. We were all frightened enough by this to stop playing this and never played it again.
From TPP — Chilling story. Thanks for sharing it.
— AndrewI blame the parents.
— Lopezre: FedUp’s comments about S&M Masters.
S&M doesn’t condone or encourage choking. It’s well known in that community- of consenting ADULTS- that this will kill you, and in many ways. Even if you live through the choking, you can drop dead of a heart attack within minutes. Five chokings and you’re a candidate for brain damage. it’s quite frowned on.
— missbikeKids who cut themselves need more help than just no Yahoo. They have major issues. Most cutters tend to be perfect little preppies as opposed to the type who play dress up. Maybe sweeping generalizations are a bad idea?
No true Master from the BDSM community would ever get on the Web and teach this. Anybody can put on black and call themselves anything, but S&M does not recruit. We’re born, not made, and even we call chokers candidates for the Darwin Awards. Pretty stupid thing to do.