Online drinking game ‘Neknomination’ reaches B.C.

A viral drinking game from Australia that has resulted in at least two deaths in Ireland has made its way to British Columbia.

Neknomination is a game where college aged kids are downing ridiculous amounts of alcohol and challenging others to drink more and take the game to the next level. Participants post images and video of themselves chugging the alcoholic beverages to social media sites to dare others to join in on the deadly game.

Thompson Rivers University (TRU) in Kamloops has issued a warning to students, if you participate in the online drinking game, you could face disciplinary action. There have been reports that some students at TRU engaged in that drinking game on campus.

On Unfiltered with Jill Krop, Duane Seibel, the Director of Student and Judicial Affairs of TRU, says the main message the school is trying to convey is to warn students about the dangers and show concern.

“We want them to consider the consequences of participating in this activity, the impact of gearing others to participate and the message they’re sending to others by posting things like this on social media,” says Seibel.

Kerrie Watt of Vancouver Coastal Health tells Jill Krop that posting the dares on social media has a dangerous impact not only on college students, but also on kids as young as thirteen who have access to Facebook and Twitter.

“I know that there was a Facebook page that has since been shut down but we know that kids as young as thirteen can technically have access to Facebook and nobody puts privacy settings on their Facebook pages the way we would like them to. So it’s certainly a concern that the rise in popularity and the warning can also have the unintended effect of creating mystic and allure.”

Jessie Miller, a social media safety speaker, agrees with Watt that social media promotes this dangerous trend.

“If one person sees it on a person’s account they could download that, transfer it to YouTube and it becomes interesting where everybody has to see it. So any of these events that we see, social media plays a big role in the fact that we see people do idiotic things quite often online and sometimes it becomes that humorous joke that everybody’s talking about, but the reality is that social media plays a role where we hear about it and it amplifies quickly.”

Neknomination has spread rapidly reaching universities and colleges across B.C.  At the moment, it’s mostly college students, but that could change to younger people as the game spreads on social media.

Experts say the combination of alcohol and competition is a dangerous one.