’Cruel’ baby challenge upsets parents

PARENTS often like to use their kids to create a fun video, and sometimes those creations can be a bit out there.

A viral challenge that kicked off last week is the perfect example of this.

It involves parents filming themselves flinging a slice of cheese at their babies.

The trend started when Twitter user unclehxlmes shared a video with the caption "just cheesed my lil brother".

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In the shaky footage, the tiny boy flinches as the processed cheese slice hits him square in the face.

The tweet quickly went viral, racking up over 8.3 million views, 258k retweets and 758k likes.

Most users found the challenge hilarious, following suit and praising the boy's alleged 'uncle' in the comments.

"I shouldn't laugh as much as I just did. He even knew something bad was about to happen," one person wrote.

"Kid's gonna grow up with a cheese phobia," another added.

But it soon transpired that the man who popularised the video, and sparked hundreds of copycats all over the world, wasn't actually connected to it at all.

As people began sharing the video started and news outlets picked it up around the world, the Twitter user unclehxlmes started to get nervous.

It turns out he had actually found the video on Facebook decided to repost it to Twitter, claiming it was his little brother.

"It was very invasive for the family and I would like to apologise," he wrote in an apology, posted to Twitter.

"I deleted it because it genuinely got way out of hand,

"I have spoken to the child's mother and explained why I have deleted it."

But as everyone knows, nothing ever truly dies on the internet.

Despite unclehxlmes' caution to the world, the 'Cheesed Challenge' has well and truly kicked off, with countless videos appearing on Twitter this week showing people lobbing cheese at their oblivious little ones.

But, unlike the original video, the internet seems to be divided on whether the Cheesed Challenge is funny, or simply cruel.

The true creator of the original video eventually spoke up, defending herself against the online haters and posting follow up footage of her child.

"Nothing's wrong with me," she wrote.

"I just found it funny how the cheese stuck to his face, and stopping him from crying was a bonus."

Another mother posted a similar video, claiming "thankfully he likes cheese".

Some commenters agreed that the challenge was hilarious.

"She has that face like: 'Why? Why did you do this to me?'" one user wrote.

"Face is priceless He's is "YESSS!" another said.

"I'm sorry hi, hello that is the sweetest baby," one said.

But some people failed to see the humour in the situation, slamming the parents for "abusing" their children.

"This is abusive," one irate mum wrote.

"How many of the parents would volunteer to have food thrown at their face, especially when u have no way of defending yourself, contained in a high chair."

Another added: "I would love to throw some cheese in the lousy parents' faces."

This story originally appeared on Kidspot and has been republished here with permission.