The mother of a 10-year-old girl who poured nail polish remover in her eyes says she can’t wait for a blanket ban on social media for under-16s to come into effect.
Rebecca Soal said she was horrified to discover her 10-year-old daughter, Phoebe, had wiped the solvent across her lips before putting several drops in each eye after seeing an influencer ‘hack’ on social media.
“This stupid video said it’s a good alternative to eye drops,” Rebecca, from Caerphilly, Wales, said.
“She went into the bathroom, grabbed my nail varnish remover, tapped it on a cotton bud and wiped it all over her lips.
“Then she dropped [some] drops in each eye.”
The stay-at-home mum revealed that she only became aware that Phoebe had done so after smelling nail varnish remover while taking her younger daughter upstairs to bed.
10-year-old Phoebe ended up in hopsital after copying an influencer ‘hack’ she’d seen online (Kennedy News and Media)
“I got that gut feeling, I went to my daughter, and it clicked. It was frightening,” the mum said. “Her lips and eyes were red.”
Rebecca went on to explain that it took a while for Phoebe to admit that she’d used the nail polish remover after seeing videos online, adding: “They use water in the videos to gain likes, they’re joking, but kids take it literally.
“We’ve seen a lot of similar videos and it’s absolutely disgusting.”
“You don’t expect kids to take part in trends.”
Petrified that her daughter had permanently damaged her eyesight, Rebecca rushed her daughter to the hospital, where doctors flushed each eye with a litre of saline water in order to ensure all of the chemicals were washed out.
While the nail polish remover was acetone-free, meaning that Phoebe avoided causing serious permanent damage to her eyes, the family do not know how her vision will be affected in the long term.
“We’re waiting for a specialist appointment for her eyes,” Rebecca explained. “So we don’t have the full picture at the moment.”
While the nail polish remover was acetone-free, it did contain the eye irritants ethyl acetate, isopropanol and bitrex (Kennedy News and Media)
Phoebe also suffered a chemical burn to her lips, which the family are treating with Vaseline to make sure it doesn’t crack.
“Doctors said she was really lucky,” she added.
Rebecca has since banned her children from social media, stating that the family were now going to be a lot more ‘vigilant’ when it comes to monitoring their online activity.
She is also in full support of the UK’s upcoming social media ban, which will effectively lock anyone under the age of 16 out of platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, X and TikTok.
Announced back in June, the Labour government hoped the move, which mirrors a similar social media ban in Australia, will kickstart a ‘cultural shift’ and allow children to grow up offline.
“It’s just scary. We can’t wait for this government ban because it’s not safe to do anything anymore,” she said.
Rebecca now says she ‘can’t wait’ for the social media ban to into effect (Kennedy News and Media)
“They go on YouTube to watch their favourite Roblox videos, you don’t expect kids to take part in trends,” she continued.
“All my children now are on a ban, we can’t take any more risks.”
When approached about the videos, YouTube said it was investigating how the clips made it onto the platform. A quick search on the video-sharing platform returned no results for nail polish remover hacks.
“Be more vigilant with your children,” Rebecca added. “I know you trust your children, but do you trust them enough not to be influenced?
“I’m hoping she understands what she has done now.”
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