A mother of young boy with autism is urging people not to get involved with a social media challenge that makes fun of people on the spectrum.

Nicole Duggan from Glanmire in County Cork told Newstalk Breakfast she couldn’t believe it when she saw people making fun of people with autism on TikTok.

She said she has been using the short-form video-sharing app with her six-year-old son Riley through the lockdown, but only recently became aware of the issue.

“When it was said to me first, I didn’t believe it was actually a thing but looking through it – and I have been sent so many videos and pictures of trends that were going on – it is thing,” she said.

“People were actually doing it and I just think that nobody has the right to mock someone or imitate them due to their disability; nobody has the right to make fun of them and they never will.”

Parents

She said it wasn’t just children positing the insensitive videos.

“The majority of the ones I say were actually adults and mothers with their kids standing next to them and ones with kids doing it with their mams,” she said.

“At the end of the day, my little boy is six and he doesn’t understand it but I don’t want him to grow up in a world where other kids are being taught that if you make fun of him, it is funny.

“He does stim, he flaps his hands, he vocally hums, he does have these things that people are mocking on the internet.”

Upset

She said her initial reaction to the videos was one of anger – but she has been more and more upset in recent days.

“Riley is going to grow up to be an autistic adult at the end of the day," she said. "I want him to grow up where he is accepted and where people are actually going to accept him in – and I hate this word – in normal society.

“With these things happening now, it is not going to happen. It is a knock-on effect and if parents are not teaching their kids properly and teaching that anybody with a disability is the exact same as you or I, they just have more difficulties, then society is never going to change.”

The autism website AsIAm.ie said the trend stigmatises autistic traits and is similar to bullying.

“The origins of the trend are unclear but the ‘challenge’ appears to consist of videos portraying insensitive impressions of autistic traits such as head-rocking, flapping and other stims,” it said.

“Many autistic people who have experience of bullying will likely have experience of people imitating autistic traits. The ultimate effect is further stigma on autistic behaviours.”