Offensive "repaying" livestreams are rampant, psychologists issue warnings
(Dan Tri) - Many confrontational livestream sessions are turning into offensive, even painful "payback" performances to attract views and gifts.
Resting after nearly a day of work, Tra My (23 years old, Hanoi) lies on the bed and opens her phone to surf social networks for entertainment.
While surfing from one video to another, she suddenly came across a PK livestream session (direct confrontation between two broadcasters) that was attracting thousands of viewers.
On the screen, the two continuously called on the audience to give gifts to win. When the countdown timer ends, the loser must carry out the pre-agreed punishment.
"I thought the most I could do was sing a song or do a few push-ups. But the loser took a burning candle to his tongue and then dripped melted candle wax onto it," My recounted.
Notably, in the comments section, instead of expressing disagreement, many people continuously cheered and asked to continue working.
Not only was the act of paying the bet offensive, right during the time of calling on the audience to give gifts, both sides continuously used swear words and provoked the other.
Tra My initially thought it was just an isolated case. However, after a few clicks to other livestream sessions, she continued to encounter similar challenges with increasingly strange levels.
"I was really shocked. What surprised me the most was not the person doing the challenge but the fact that so many people were cheering and giving gifts to such livestreamers," My expressed.
Besides, recently, some parents have begun to worry when their children accidentally access offensive PK content.
Ms. Thu Ha (38 years old, Quang Ninh) said that one afternoon, while cleaning the house, she heard continuous screaming coming from her daughter's room, who is in 7th grade.
"I thought he was watching an entertainment program so I asked him to turn down the volume. But when I looked at the phone screen, I was panicked when I saw someone livestreaming dropping bricks on his stomach," she said.
On the screen, the man continuously carried bricks stacked on top of each other and then dropped them on his body. This action was repeated more than a dozen times amid the cheers of the winning side.
Asking her daughter, Ms. Ha learned that it was a punishment for the loser after a match with gifts from the audience on TikTok.
Concerned that her child would be affected by harmful content, Ms. Ha immediately blocked the livestream and talked to her child about the danger of the above action.
For Ms. Ha, what worries her is that her daughter is not aware of the danger of this action.
"He told me that this type of livestream online is watched by many people. I had to explain for a long time to make him understand that causing pain to himself is not something worth cheering for," she said.
Such stories are becoming more common as the PK feature on social networking platforms is increasingly distorted to gain more gifts.
There are countless tricks to bypass the platform
Just by surfing social networks, it is not difficult for users to encounter PK livestream sessions taking place continuously.
Typically, two streamers will compete for a few minutes. Viewers can click like or send paid gifts to support a party.
After the end of the competition period, the losing side must make a pre-agreed challenge.
At first, punishments are usually quite harmless such as singing a song, dancing to music, doing push-ups or drinking water.
But to compete among thousands of different livestream sessions, many users began pushing the limits of the challenges to more and more extreme levels.
It is not difficult to find PK sessions in which the loser has to use a knife to drop on the body, drop a water bottle straight, stack bricks on the body, dip their hands in boiling water, do actions that hurt the private area, and countless other painful actions.
Besides causing physical pain, many people also choose offensive and revealing forms of betting to attract attention.
The common point of this content is that the more shocking it is, the easier it is to attract comments, shares and interactions.
To bypass the platform, many people change the livestream color to black and use an overlay to blur the image to hide malicious behavior. At the same time, they also added laughter and applause effects right at the time of swearing so they could comfortably use sensitive language.
Many audiences are willing to spend money to cheer for these actions. Virtual gifts worth from a few thousand dong to millions of dong continuously appear during live broadcast sessions. Many comments also expressed agreement, asking players to continue.
In addition, some users also attached QR codes to transfer money to call on the audience to support with calls like "my family, help me win".
Children are the most worrisome
Talking to Dan Tri reporter, MSc Le Dai Minh, a psychology expert, said there are many psychological factors and operating mechanisms of social networks that make offensive PK content still attract a large number of viewers.
According to experts, people tend to be attracted to content that is shocking, surprising or goes beyond normal standards.
"Dangerous, painful or offensive acts create strong emotional stimulation, making viewers curious and want to continue watching the next developments," Mr. Minh commented.
Besides, the algorithms of social networking platforms often prioritize distributing content with high interaction potential.
When users stop watching, commenting, arguing or sharing about a PK screen, the system can continue to recommend that content to more people. This unintentionally increases the coverage and attraction of deviant behaviors.
According to experts, people tend to be attracted to content that is shocking, surprising or beyond normal standards (Illustration: AI).
Another factor is the feeling of being directly involved in the game.
During PK livestream sessions, viewers can give gifts, vote or cheer for their favorite people. Therefore, these live performances create crowd psychology and a feeling of excitement similar to watching a real competition.
"Many people are caught up in that atmosphere and pay little attention to the consequences of the actions taking place before their eyes," the expert said.
In addition, competition among content creators also contributes to making the challenges more extreme.
To maintain views and make a difference among thousands of different livestreams, some people are willing to accept more dangerous or offensive challenges than before. The result is an invisible spiral of competition, in which the level of shock is continuously pushed up.
Many people are willing to accept dangerous challenges to receive money or more interactions (Illustration: AI).
Assessing the impact of this content on viewers, Mr. Minh said that children and teenagers are the most worrying target groups.
"Regular exposure to offensive content or physical torture can cause viewers to gradually become emotionally desensitized to dangerous acts. Things that are considered abnormal can be seen as a normal form of entertainment," the expert analyzed.
For children, the risk is even greater because their ability to assess risk and control behavior is still a work in progress.
Children easily imitate the behaviors they see online, especially when those behaviors are associated with popularity, a large number of viewers, or receiving encouragement from the community.
Not only that, but frequent exposure to this content can also distort your perception of your self-worth and how to attract the attention of others.
Children easily imitate online behavior without direction from their families. Dangerous content can blur the line between entertainment and harmful behavior (Illustration: AI).
Experts warn: "Some children may develop the idea that to get attention, they must create increasingly shocking, dangerous or extreme actions."
In the long term, without guidance from families, schools and digital platforms, such content can blur the line between entertainment and harmful behavior.
Experts say that in addition to increasing censorship from platforms, parents need to pay more attention to the content their children access on social networks.
Talking, teaching skills to identify harmful content and building safe Internet usage habits are important factors to help children avoid being influenced by deviant trends in cyberspace.