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Bird Box Challenge goes viral as Netflix issues danger warning

Netflix doesn't want Bird Box fans to end up in the hospital.

Amanda Kooser
Freelance writer Amanda C. Kooser covers gadgets and tech news with a twist for CNET. When not wallowing in weird gear and iPad apps for cats, she can be found tinkering with her 1956 DeSoto.
Amanda Kooser
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Netflix released Bird Box in December.

Netflix

The holidays got creepy quick when Netflix released Bird Box, a Sandra Bullock horror film that imagines a world where everyone has to go around wearing blindfolds to protect themselves from a killer force. 

While Bird Box attracted a lot of A Quiet Place comparisons, the popular post-apocalyptic thriller also sparked a weird viral challenge. Social media users are posting photos and videos of themselves wearing blindfolds. Now Netflix wants them to chill. 

The Netflix US Twitter account issued a caution on Wednesday, saying, "Can't believe I have to say this, but: PLEASE DO NOT HURT YOURSELVES WITH THIS BIRD BOX CHALLENGE. We don't know how this started, and we appreciate the love, but Boy and Girl have just one wish for 2019 and it is that you not end up in the hospital due to memes."

Despite the alarm, there aren't a lot of examples of disastrous Bird Box Challenges. 

One popular video tweet does show a toddler bumping into a wall, but most of the mentions of the challenge are based around jokes about driving blindfolded or people remembering the episode of SpongeBob SquarePants where he pilots a boat blindfolded.

Some people took a different approach to the challenge. "Bird Box Challenge completed," joked a Twitter user with a questionable username. "Made it through the whole movie without taking off my blindfold." 

Twitter user Kristina Hernandez had perhaps the best response to the Bird Box Challenge when she posted a video of an actual bird attacking a cardboard box. "The only Bird Box challenge that should exist," she wrote.

The Bird Box Challenge may not rise to same levels of hysteria as the great Tide Pod Challenge scare of 2018, but anybody who tries it should take heed of Netflix's warning and be careful when playing with blindfolds.

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