The TikTok Devious Licks challenge has students destroying and stealing from schools. Here is what you need to know about this toxic TikTok trend and how to help stop it.
Last week, my kid was telling me about how the girls’ bathroom was destroyed at their school. To make matter worse, it wasn’t just some random bad kid who was having a bad day and felt like taking their anger out on the bathroom – it was because of a TikTok challenge.
TikTok Devious Licks Challenge
Devious Licks Challenge is the latest TikTok trends that is having kids do stupid things. We have seen kids doing stupid things before, all in the name of social media. Who can forget the TidePod challenge or the Cinnamon Challenge.
September 2021 – Devious Licks TikTok Challenge and for October 2021 – Smack a Teacher Challenge. UGH!
While this TikTok challenge is not limited to middle school and high school students, that seems to be the majority who are participating in these shenanigans. Though, sadly I have seen a few college devious lick TikTok videos.
What is Devious Licks?
What is this Devious Licks Challenge trending on TikTok? and WHAT is a DEVIOUS LICK?
Let’s result to the GEN-Z dictionary to find out what the hell devious licks means. (apologies to all millenials for mis-typing millennial for gen-z. I see your comments and I corrected.)
Devious is defined as showing a skillful use of underhanded tactics to achieve goals, clever, or crafty.
Here is the definition of lick:
A successful type of theft which results in an acceptable, impressive and rewarding payday for the protagonist.
urban dictionary
So devious lick means a crafty theft.
Yes, some of these devious lick TikTok videos are cleverly sarcastic. I have seen videos, where a kid is helping move a cafeteria table at school out of the way, and someone posted it as a devious lick. While the intent – I could totally see being to show something clever sarcastically, that’s not the direction that this has gone.
What are Kids Stealing?
Kids (and some adults) are licking all kinds of things, from things from church, stores to what is getting the most press – kids licking school property.
Not that stealing is ever good – but to make things worse, what is happening is not only stealing but vandalism and it’s happening at the schools.
Students are stealing everything from toilets, mirrors, hand sanitizers, couches, doors, benches, chairs. It is just down right stupid and to make things even stupider – these kids are stealing and vandalizing, then posting on TikTok.
Yes, sometimes the kids’ faces are blurred or it is just photos posted, but regardless this TikTok Devious Licks challenge has to stop.
School Closes a Bathroom Due to Vandalization from TikTok Trend
How bad is it, apparently REAL BAD. Kids do stupid things, but this is just dumb. Schools are already limited with their financial resources and now we have kids stealing and destroying school property all in the name of the Devious Licks trend.
Kids are oblivious to the reality that their lick is actually a felony and can cost not only the school thousands of dollars but their parents in legal fees.
How bad is this trend, really? So bad that numerous school have shut down bathrooms. Here are reports from schools in Indiana, Florida, North Carolina and more.
TikTok Bans Content
Last week, at the height of the “devious lick” trend, TikTok started banning content in which students post videos of items allegedly stolen from their schools.
“We expect our community to stay safe and create responsibly, and we do not allow content that promotes or enables criminal activities,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement to Insider, adding that the platform was blocking the content in an effort to “discourage such behavior.”
Statement from TikTok via Insider
Devious Lick Hashtags
And while TikTok may state this – do note, the trend is still happening and videos are still appearing that feature the Devious Licks challenge. Here is a list of TikTok hashtags that kids are using to post about the trend:
- #deviouslicks
- #deviouslick
- #deviousliick
- #deviousliicks
- #licks
- #devouslicks
While it appears most of the content is now people documenting what happened after the lick happened and not the actual devious lick in action – this just goes to show how out of hand this TikTok trend has gotten.
Angelic Licks or Angelic Yield
As a sarcastic response to the TikTok Devious Licks, a new TikTok trend I am seeing is the Angelic Licks. For instance, rather than stealing from the bathroom – an angelic lick would be placing a plunger in the school bathroom or an extra roll of toilet paper.
My kid sent me a TikTok of someone putting a TV into the school bathroom.
The TikTok hashtags are #angelicyield or #angeliclick
What Parents Can Do
As a mom to 4 kids that never do anything wrong – well first that is a lie. I know my angelic children are well, not angels. Thankfully – I haven’t caught them involved doing any TikTok devious licks challenge videos.
Parents, something we need to do it talk to our kids. Make them aware that this is not okay. While yes, certain ones of us were rotten and just bad kids in middle school and high school – that doesn’t mean that our kids have to be that way. My parents, (bless) never talked to me about this crap – because well the crap we did was not in the news.
We can embrace technology and social media or cast it as the devil. Personally, I choose to use it to help educate and show my kids the right from the wrong. Will it always work, no. Do my kids make mistakes? Yes. Am I glad that those mistakes are made under my roof? YES.
If your kid is involved in a devious lick, I would encourage you to do the right thing. Make it right. Have a conversation with your kid. Fix the issue. It might not all be sunshine, but it will be a lesson.
Social Media for Good
Rather than a TikTok Devious Lick challenge, what about a TikTok Spoil Your Teacher challenge. It’s too bad our kids are seeing the hype out of creating chaos.
How can we guide that energy and help them use social media for good?
The Good and Bad of TikTok
Listen, I LOVE me some TikTok. Probably way too much, in fact – yes, I spend way too much time doing the endless scroll thru videos and buying random products (see TikTok made me buy it) (thought I have to be honest, the TikTok cleaning hacks are pretty amazing.) That said, know what your kids are doing online.
I often preach that you do you. I do mean that. I’ve been asked about how much screen time you should let your kid have, and what teen apps are popular. At the end of the day, this is between you and your child and what is best for your family.
A family member sent me this post from Jennifer Ramsay on Facebook:
Parents – stop the TikTok madness. This is no place for your kids. If you are on the fence about this, dive into this alarming article by the Wall Street Journal. Highlights include:
WSJ created dozens of TikTok accounts for fictional users between the ages of 13 and 15. “An analysis of the videos served to these accounts found that through its powerful algorithms, TikTok can quickly drive minors—among the biggest users of the app—into endless spools of content about sex and drugs.”
“TikTok served one account registered as a 13-year-old at least 569 videos about drug use, references to cocaine and meth addiction, and promotional videos for online sales of drug products and paraphernalia. Hundreds of similar videos appeared in the feeds of the Journal’s other minor accounts.”
“TikTok also showed the Journal’s teenage users more than 100 videos from accounts recommending paid pornography sites and sex shops. Thousands of others were from creators who labeled their content as for adults only.”
“Still others encouraged eating disorders and glorified alcohol, including depictions of drinking and driving and of drinking games.”
Just say no to this horrible app! If your kids are on it , you can still say no. Explain why you are changing your mind and why this space is not for them.You’ve got this! Stay strong
#notiktok #garbageapp #letkidsbekidslonger #youcandoit
Facebook
TikTok Conspiracy Theory
Another Facebook post, you gotta love local Facebook groups (or not) – had a mom sharing how her husband said that these TikTok trends are actually coming from China as a way to make Americans look stupid. Her source besides her husband was that TikTok is a Chinese company.
While in theory, that would be pretty smart – that’s not actually the case. I think us Americans are pretty good at making ourselves look stupid for the world without China’s help.
TikTok was originally Musical.ly – yes, it is owned by a Chinese company called ByteDance, but is also partially owned by the US company, Oracle. This happened in 2020 to avoid the US TikTok ban. (read more about that on engadget)
Douyin App
In China, users of TikTok actually don’t use the TikTok app. There is a Chinese version of TikTok called Douyin owned by ByteDancer (same company that owns TikTok.)
On the Chinese version, the Douyin app – it was announced this week that it will limit kids to 40 minutes a day by introducing a teenage mode. The Douyin service will also be down between the hours of 10 pm and 6 am. These measures will be applied to all Douyin users under the age of 14 years old who have registered for the app using their real names. (read more on CNN)
While the US certainly isn’t China. I do have to say, putting these TikTok app limits on kids under 18 years old wouldn’t be something I would be opposed to.
Devious Licks Memes
While I am all about the funny memes, I am really not looking for kids to find devious licks memes here. So I will post these in hopes that they bring the reality of this stupid TikTok trend to the forefront.
Devious licks in 2021 does not have the same meaning to our kids as it did when we were growing up. (because everyone over analyzes everything, this is not meant to state that we should be spanking our kids.)
#RAOK > #DEVIOUSLICKS – random act of kindness will always be greater. We need to help our kids choose good over bad.
Well, I hope you now feel educated in regards to the TikTok Devious Licks challenge, what a devious lick is, what parents are saying about kids and TikTok, the TikTok conspiracy theory in regards to China and what the app is like for teenagers in China.
TikTok Devious Licks Challenge 2021 is apart of the Digital Mom Blog TikTok series
Stay tuned, more TikTok trends, favorite videos and more coming soon to Digital Mom Blog – follow Digital Mom Blog on TikTok