Utilizing this TikTok horse-face filter on infants isn’t humorous—it’s merciless
Why do some adults think it’s fun to scare a baby to the tears?
If you’ve been following us here at Today’s Parent for a while, you probably know we’re not big fans of pranks that will make your kids cry on purpose (remember Spider filter on Snapchat?) or make people laugh at your child’s expense (remember “Cheese” your baby?).
So when we saw some parents sharing videos on Tiktok and Instagram with a filter sticking their face to a horse’s head to deliberately freak out their babies, we knew we had to say something – again. Here is an example:
Now don’t get us wrong – between the facial stretch and the goofy yodelling, this filter is undeniably hilarious. If your little kid knows the difference between a fun photo filter and reality, they’ll be sure to know giggle fit when you watch your face (or your own) transform into a silly horse’s head. Just check out the older siblings in the video above for a total kick out of it.
However, babies who do not understand this difference get scared of the filter and that is where we have a problem. From the clips we’ve seen, parents show their babies this filter for no other reason than to make them cry, and frankly, when it comes to cruelty, it’s just not funny. Check out this little one who supposedly never cries over anything but obviously thinks her parents suffered a terrible unicorn curse:
@ leonie_louise.xx He literally never cries at anything, so I’m super shocked ## unicornfilterchallenge ## viralticktok ♬ original sound – Miss_Strawberry – Miss.Strawberry
We’re all just for a bit of fun – we have a sense of humor, I promise – but we’ll just put it simply: it’s really not okay to scare your baby into tears for any reason, even if it makes you laugh (and if that the Case, maybe it is time to think about why you find a scared crying baby funny).
Can’t we all keep this filter for the kids old enough to know it isn’t real and enjoy the joy of their uncontrollable laughter? The world is bad and scary enough as it is.
