If you’ve spent any time on social media recently, you might have caught wind of the bizarre uproar surrounding a student council TikTok video. What started as a harmless, lighthearted trend of students mixing a “candy salad” exploded into massive online controversy. Why? Because one kid poured five Skittles into the bowl, and the internet decided that was an unforgivable crime.
Yes, you read that right. Five Skittles.
What followed was a textbook digital witch-hunt. Adult strangers—people who should have jobs, families, or at least a hobby—piled into the comments section to dogpile, insult, and tear down a young student over candy.
Let’s take a step back and use some logical empathy. When did we decide that internet outrage should completely outrun human logic? We talk constantly about protecting our kids, but we need to realize that the threat isn’t just the predatory algorithms designed to keep them hooked on screens. The threat is also a toxic digital culture that teaches adults to react with instant, unthinking malice instead of basic decency.
We are teaching the next generation that any minor, harmless action can make them the target of global, unhinged ridicule. It forces our kids to walk on eggshells in their own schools, terrified of being “cancelled” by a mob of faceless keyboard warriors.
Before we click “share,” before we leave a nasty comment, and before we join the digital mob, we need to think. We must protect our kids from being exploited as cheap content for views. Let’s leave the school kids alone and save our outrage for things that actually matter.
