An alarming trend on social media site TikTok sees parents ask their kids to help them in a fight.
Mums and dads have been asking their offspring to stick up for them in them in a brawl, and filming their reaction for online engagement.
But the trend has split opinion among users, with some parents suggesting it is promoting violence among young children.
The trend, which uses the hashtag #fightprank has attracted more than 24.8million views on the site
A typical video would see a parent surprising their child and asking them to “put their shoes on” as they have to “fight another parent” and need someone to support them.
Children's reactions are then filmed and included on the video sharing site.
The children are seemingly unaware what is going on, conned by their parents into believing they are going to have to fight, or being left confused what is going on.
Some young kids immediately support their parents, but others are not bothered and will let them fight it out alone.
One user of the site wrote; “I love this trend all these kids really be down to fight for their mamas.
“Soon as you said fight mommy he got right up,” responded another user with a weeping face emoji.
“Bro this trend is priceless,” another wrote.
Another mum joked: “I tried this on my daughter and she said no I’m scared,”
Most kids were were willing to defend their parents despite being afraid of any potential outcome.
Users said most children involved in the trend were ready for anything.
The idea of kids defending their mums and dads was amusing to many people - but others warned it could promote violence when solving issues.
Detractors of the trend suggested it was akin for "terrible mothering" and were left unimpressed by fighting being encouraged amongst kids.
“This trend is reinforcing fighting when we have issues to kids. we should be teaching them how to use our words and communicate effectively,” a TikToker argued.
A warning has been put on some videos alongside the hashtag to say they could be injured if they take part in the trend.
A number of social media trends have claimed the lives of young people.
The Mirror told of another social media user who devised a perfect plan to stop her children from getting out of bed too early.
Nicole DeRoy shared her hack in a video posted on social media in which she said all she has to do is tell her children that the last one to get out of bed has free reign to decide what the family does that day.
And because her kids all want their own choice of activity, they stay in bed for much longer than they would do if they didn't have a reason to.
In the clip, shared on Nicole's @nicolederoy account, she explained: "Told my kids that the last one out of bed this morning gets to decide what we do today."
She captioned the video: "Parenting hack."
