Charlie Charlie Challenge sparks social media craze, concerns

A couple of pencils and a sheet of paper, that’s all it takes for kids in recent online videos to get freaked out by the “Charlie Charlie Challenge.”

Similar to the Ouija board someone chants “Charlie Charlie, are you here?” If the pencil balancing on the other spins, some players believe they’re in the presence of a Mexican demon.

“Whether you’re a Christian or not a Bible believer, it’s a dangerous game. When we grew up it was light as a feather stiff as a board and Bloody Mary, to me their opening a door in your child’s life that you don’t want opened,” said Renee Lara of Cathedral City.

Lara, a mother of five, said that door swung open for her second grade daughter Wednesday as her classmates took the challenge in the school bathroom.

“It scared her. It scared her a lot,” said Lara. “I explained to her this is not good and this is why. Yes, there is gravity and breath involved so either way that you believe, I believe as a parent you have to tell your child the difference between light and dark, moral choices, peer pressures. It allowed us to have a great discussion over family dinner about those things.”

So is it the spirit world, gravity or the wind spinning the pencils?

“It’s the danger, the excitement, kids are going to be kids, but as parents it’s our job to say let’s not do that again. I need you safe,” said Lara.