CHILDREN are taking part in dangerous online pranks including "timing how long they can stop breathing", it has been revealed during a Thurrock Council meeting.

The worry trend was revealed by Priscilla Bruce-Annan, Thurrock Council's local safeguarding children partnership business manager.

Ms Bruce-Annan gave councillors on the children's services overview and scrutiny committee meeting a report on an online safety event held last year.

More than 2,500 children attended the Walk Online Roadshow , held at the Civic Hall Blackshots in Grays in November.

The children took part in interactive online safety presentations and received information on known and emerging risks online and in the community.

Asked at the meeting on Tuesday what kind of risk youngsters were currently facing, Ms Bruce-Annan said: "We learned from some of the discussion with the children that there are some online pranks.

"You go into social media or you may go into a chat room and you delve down and go into a rabbit hole and you can find yourself in a world where you are being encouraged to do certain pranks and to do some risky behaviour that you wouldn't normally do.

Priscilla Bruce-Annan briefing the meeting on the dangers children are facing.

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"Some of the children were reporting taking pictures nude and passing on to people, divulging their address so they could meet somebody that they feel is their friend but they don't know them. It could be an adult but they wouldn't know."

Ms Bruce-Annan added: "There's some experimenting with holding the breath. The most recent one is one where children are taking some kind of timing device, one of the ones that came out is an egg timer from the kitchen and trying to hold their breath in the bathroom.

"What they are doing is locking the bathroom door so it's those types of things we are having to draw out and make sure schools are aware of and maybe doing some work around educating children that it may sound like a bit fun and competitive but actually is dangerous especially if you are doing it behind a locked door and mum, dad or whoever the carer is, is totally unaware of what you are doing, it's really quite dangerous."

Ms Bruce-Annan said children seemed relieved to get adult support on the issue.

She said: "It was quite shocking to see some of the children getting visibly upset because they either have tried it or they know somebody who tried it and it wasn't a nice feeling.

"It was almost like a sense of relief that adults know about it and can share that kind of risky behaviour and not to do it with other children."