Over the years social media has seen children take part in a host of horrific trends in exchange for likes and shares.
And the recent emergence of youngsters brutally killing wildlife with catapults for clout on the likes of Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok is a particularly sickening one.
Local wildlife rescue groups are sounding the alarm as they say there has been a dramatic rise in the number of reports they receive of animals being hit with slingshots.
They have also warned that the culprits are often primary school children ‘as young as eight years old’, with a lot of the incidents taking place during school time.
A quick search on TikTok and the like reveal shocking posts of young ‘influencers’ shooting down wildlife with catapults and posing with them for popularity online.
The trend is taking hold countrywide, with the Greenwich and Bexley areas of London as well as Essex and Kent particularly affected by a large number of cases.
Wildlife groups say not enough is being done by police to crack down on the incidents, are now calling for the sale and carrying of catapults in public to be made illegal, with a petition collecting more than 17,000 signatures.
Rae Gellel, founder of Greenwich Wildlife Network told MailOnline: ‘It’s kids.
Hellbound and Down 