What is the Superman Challenge? What Parents Need to Know

The TikTok Superman Challenge is a social media challenge that is gaining popularity around the world with teens and adults alike. While it may look like harmless fun, participating in this dangerous challenge poses risks that parents should be aware of. In this blog, parents will learn what the Superman Challenge is, its potential dangers, and how parents can talk to their kids about avoiding this challenge

Educators and parents: Guide your students' reflection and discussion with this student worksheet. (Log in to your Google account and select File-->Make a Copy)

Parent video

What is the Superman Challenge?

• The Superman Challenge involves people lining up in two rows facing each other, holding hands, and then another participant, the “Superman”, jumps into their connected arms  
• Ideally, the friends catch the “Superman” and then throw them back up into the air as if they were flying  
• Unfortunately, they often don’t catch their friend, and the friend will fall on the ground or into a wall and receive serious injuries.  Sometimes, it’s a fake out and the friends never intended to catch the jumper at all, letting them crash into the ground 
• Participants record the challenge and post the video on social media 
• An alternative is the Superman Dance Challenge which shows the participant dancing before or after they jump

Top concerns of the Superman Challenge

• This challenge looks simple, easy, and fun making students drawn to participate, but it could result in various injuries to the participants
• The individuals catching and throwing the “Superman” or “Superwoman” could break the cradle of arms and drop the “Super”
• The Super could fall or not land on their feet on their way back down from “flying”
• Many students have received severe injuries such as: broken bones, chipped teeth, head injuries, and received many bruises from attempting this new challenge
• TikTok has put a disclaimer on their website when searching for this challenge to warn users not to participate or post this type of video and is no longer showing these videos on the platform, but there are plenty of these videos available on YouTube Shorts

What can parents and educators do?

• Explain the physical dangers of participating in this challenge to students
• Get involved and talk with your student about peer pressure on social media 
• Also, discuss ways to report or block bullying if they feel pressured to partake in dangerous TikTok challenges
• Remind students that users don’t always share their full experiences in their social media posts. For instance, others have likely not shared their negative side effects of the challenge

Superman Challenge in the news

(The Superman Challenge) has gotten to a point where searching TikTok for “Superman Challenge” returns the following message: “Your safety matters Some online challenges can be dangerous, disturbing, or even fabricated. Learn how to recognize harmful challenges so you can protect your health and well-being. - Forbes

More resources

Dangerous Social Media Challenges

TikTok Guide for Parents (2025): What Parents, Educators, & Students Need to Know

Social Media Challenges: What Students, Parents & Educators Need to Know

Making Screen Time Fun While Reducing the Negative Impact

Conclusion

The Superman challenge is appealing to teens, but if it goes wrong, it can get dangerous quickly. Parents should discuss with their teens the danger of this challenge and similar challenges and encourage their students to participate in positive and safe social media challenges.