Hyderabad: Arts College hotspot for selfie videos

Osmania University: When a City-based freelance photographer spotted some teenagers shooting videos in front of iconic OU Arts College building on Sunday, he was puzzled. Sanjay Borra soon figured out that they were recording themselves on a video-sharing mobile application. The young and restless have a tendency to try out new mobile applications in order to gain quick popularity on the web and social media.

Taking chance on holiday, some youngsters gathered on the OU campus for filming themselves. The group was seen climbing the fountain in front of Arts College and recording videos, which will be set to music or voice-over immediately to be uploaded on video-sharing application from there to other social media platforms.

Several incidents have been reported on death of youngsters while shooting videos and trying out various dangerous challenges, like Blue Whale and KiKi Car.

A senior police official told The Hans India that patrolling vehicles have observed youngsters recording videos on Tank Bund, Necklace Road and other public places both during day and night. "The police asked them not to do so. To gain popularity they record videos by risking their life," he observed.

There have been several accidents where youth were caught by the police during late nights near Tank Bund, as they recorded videos on speeding bikes or cars on City roads. This trend became popular with the Chinese application 'TikTok'. After India banned the Chinese app in June 2020 a large number of TikTok users felt sad and were looking for other video-sharing apps.

Though TikTok was banned, the craze remains among youth. They are still seen filming and recording videos on Indian mobile applications, like Roposo App, Chingari App, Vigo Video, Dubsmash, MX TakaTak, Moj Josh and Snack Video

This give parents and teachers cause for concern after the popularity of dangerous online dares such as the Blue Whale Challenge and KiKi Car.

Apart from recording videos near heritage sites, roads, public parks, nowadays youth are seen at schools, colleges and universities. They are filming themselves on various sites for uploading musically-recorded footage on video-sharing applications developed in the country.

A parent came to know about a child when a teacher caught her recording video in class. "I was not aware of my child, who is still in VIII class, carrying her mobile phone and recording video in school," said Shiva Laxmi, a resident of Malkajgiri.

"Parents were so happy that the government banned TikTok. But, similar apps have been developed in the country and a large number of youngsters are still seen making clips and uploading them on the app hoping they would get popularity by recording videos in different styles and at various locations," said a parent.