Paqui ‘One Chip Challenge’ prompts concerns in school communities about social media’s impact

By Chloe Adams

September 24, 2023

The 2023 Paqui “One Chip Challenge” recently prompted different school community members near Boston to express concern about social media’s influence on younger generations.

After Harris Wolobah, a 14-year-old Worcester, Mass. student, died earlier this month after participating in the challenge, Paqui announced on Sept. 7 that they were working to pull the product from shelves after seeing “an increase in teens and other individuals not heeding these warnings.”

The challenge, which resurfaced online as a dare since initially circulating around 2016, consists of people posting their reactions to social media after consuming the chip and seeing how long it takes until they need a drink or food to cool down the spice.

The chip, packaged in a coffin-shaped box, contains both the Carolina Reaper and Naga Viper peppers. Capsaicin is a compound found in both of these chili peppers — and pepper spray products. While the average pepper spray contains about 2 to 5 million Scoville Heat Units, a singular Carolina Reaper pepper contains up to 2.2 million SHU, according to a 2020 article published in Radiology Case Reports journal.

Karen Richardson, the guidance secretary at Doherty Memorial High School — the same school Harris attended as a sophomore before his passing — said, in general, social media is given more power to influence younger people’s decisions when parents lack involvement in their children’s lives.

“Kids these days don’t like to tell about anything, and that’s a lot of the issue,” said Richardson. “They don’t like to tell about what they hear, so you can’t stop it if you don’t know.”

Richardson said she has noticed more parents being less willing to pay attention to their kids nowadays.

“I've seen little babies, 3 or 4 years old, in grocery stores holding a stupid phone because the mother doesn't want to be bothered,” she said.

Richardson said she has not been made too aware of staff having formal discussions with students about the chip challenge or social media’s impact on young people — even after the loss that struck Worcester.

Cindy Elmekias, mother to a Brookline High School senior, also said she has not heard any word about the challenge from her son’s school. Instead, she said she discovered the Paqui “One Chip Challenge” while watching the news and had her son watch the story with her.

“I said, ‘This kid died,’” said Elmekias. “I don't even know if he knew about it, but I didn't care because it's possible it would circulate.”

Elmekias said she wanted to prevent her son from consuming the fiery chip by making him aware of what happened to others who took on the challenge.

“He likes really spicy things — he likes to prove that he can tolerate that kind of stuff  — so I could completely see why kids do that,” she said.

This is not the first time that a viral social media challenge imposed health-related impacts on people. The American Association of Poison Control Centers received an increase in calls in 2012 compared to the previous year due to “intentional misuse or abuse of ingesting cinnamon” with this call growth being related to an “increased number of Cinnamon Challenge videos on YouTube," according to a 2013 article published in the Pediatrics journal. 

Elmekias said she understands why kids would be motivated to pursue online-driven challenges given the pressure that social media inflicts on young people. 

“There's a huge amount of pressure to put yourself out there and make a mark for yourself, and this is a way to do that — doing something daring,” she said.