Harris County Fire Marshal’s Office issues warning about Chromebook challenge

VIDEO: You may have heard about the Chromebook challenge. Itโ€™s a viral challenge spreading on social media, costing school districts thousands of dollars and putting students at risk. And itโ€™s apparently happening here in the Houston area. So what is it? The challenge involves kids jamming objects like paper clips and pencils into the USB port of Chromebooks, causing them to spark. You can see fire, smoke, and other safety threats in some of the videos. The Harris County Fire Marshalโ€™s Office posted to X on Wednesday, saying theyโ€™ve responded to incidents at schools. In their post, they have a warning — children as young as ten years old can be charged with arson. At this point, we donโ€™t know how prevalent it is in the Houston area, but a school district in Central Texas reports that it happened to ten of their Chromebooks in just a couple of weeks.

KHOU-TV CBS 11 Houston

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