The death of an Irish man linked to the popular internet dare phenomenon Neknomination has sent chills across the internet. Jonny Byrne, 19, drowned after jumping into a river after his family says he accepted an online dare.
Neknomination, believed to have originated in Australia, involves participants downing alcohol, performing a stunt and daring other people to do the same using the social networking site Facebook.
Although there has been a push by Byrne’s family to ban Neknomination pages from Facebook, the site says it can only moderate content on the website that is of direct harm to others and the pages do not fall under that category.
This trend and its alleged casualty have sparked a slew of online responses both defending and scolding those playing the game.
One of the biggest Neknomination Facebook pages posted this response on their site:
Other Facebook users responded to the statement
“At the end of the day we are all human and have common sense to make up our own minds and choose our own decisions! You can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink!” – Al MacBeth-McAllister
“Too much hate for the page. It wasn't this page that MADE them do it, it was free will.” – Lewis Brown
“I'm confused, you don't regard what you promote as abusing alcohol?” - Jan Dun
A South African man, Brent Lindeque has set up page promoting dares of a different kind to NekNominate.
Instead of accepting a drinking dare from his friend, He filmed himself donating food to impoverished South Africans and dared his friends to do a similar good deed.
He posted on his YouTube video: "Downing a can of Castle Light is easy... imagine if we all harnessed the power of social media to make a real difference in people's lives."
Mr Lindeque's message has reached the masses. People have been taking to Twitter to post their acts of kindness:
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