How much is too much?

Popular local influencer Naomi Neo has found herself in the crosshairs of netizens after posting a TikTok video of her and her husband pranking their four-year-old son Kyzo on Thursday (Aug 11), causing the child to go into a frenzied crying fit. 

The viral trend currently spreading on TikTok has parents pretending to do a dance video with their children, only to turn around and escape from the room, locking the door behind them as eerie music plays in the background.

As expected, the terrified child goes into a tizzy, banging and wailing at the door.

Netizens have called for parents to stop replicating the "cruel" prank, alleging that it can inflict long-term psychological and emotional trauma on kids.

In the video Neo posted, her adorable son Kyzo can be seen curiously staring into the camera as his parents slowly back away from view, slamming the door shut.

Confused at first, the little boy's expression changes in a split second to one of horror. He frantically runs to the door and all but jumps on the doorknob in his attempts to open it, but fails.

While the video doesn't contain any audio of the actual moment, one can almost hear his horrified wails. "I can hear his screams," wrote one commenter.

"How can you listen to his screams and laugh at it when he's truly scared?" asked another in response to the video, which has generated more than 15,000 comments as of writing.

While a handful of commenters seemed to take perverse pleasure in the video, requesting Neo to "do it again", it seemed more considered the prank in bad taste and could possibly prove damaging to a child's psyche.

"This isn't a funny 'prank', this can seriously have a big impact on a kid's mental health and lead to trauma," wrote a concerned netizen.

One woman shared a similar experience of being locked up in a "well-lit room" by her mother when she was three, adding that as an adult, she still has to "wake my husband up in the middle of the night to accompany me to the toilet".

Another woman who claimed to be 50 years old said she is still "traumatised" over an incident some 44 years ago where her parents left her alone in a room. 

Nanasilayro, a Filipino content creator with four million followers on TikTok, has also posted a video slamming the TikTok trend, sharing her opinion on why pranking children in this manner "for content" is a very bad idea.

"This is not okay…. I'm not sure if people are aware of the consequences of the trend," said Nanasilayro, who professed to be an early childhood educator.

It's really sad to see that people are doing it for content," she said, adding that she hopes parents will be aware that "this will cause long-term trauma".

"Don't ever do this," she chided, stressing that "a lot can happen" in the few seconds when the child is alone in the room.

"The child can bang their head… pull wires, the child can have convulsions… faint," said Nanasilayro, and not to mention develop "very, very bad trust issues".

On her part, Neo has stated in the caption to the video that she has "apologised with tears" to her son, but has yet to respond to the criticisms.

However, it's not the first time the 26-year-old mum has pulled a prank on her son that reduced him to tears, either. In another video published in March, Kyzo was shown breaking down in tears after realising his mother was not around to pick him up from school [spoiler alert, she was].

AsiaOne has reached out to Neo for comment.

candicecai@asiaone.com

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