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Gronk's PSA to teens: "Stop eating Tide Pods"

FOXBORO, MA - OCTOBER 29: Rob Gronkowski #87 of the New England Patriots looks on as he warms up before a game against the Los Angeles Chargers at Gillette Stadium on October 29, 2017 in Foxboro, Massachusetts. (Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images)

BOSTON — Kids are up to all kinds of things these days.

One of the most shocking and puzzling new trends in the online world has been dubbed as the "Tide Pod Challenge."

In the bizarre challenge, kids from all across the country are recording themselves putting Tide Pods in their mouths and popping them.

However, as most of us who know not to put laundry detergent pods in our mouths, invariably this can go extremely wrong.

Tide then turned to one of their brand ambassadors kids would actually listen to - Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski.

In a hilarious PSA, Gronk tells teens to stop partaking in the dangerous social media challenge and to use the laundry detergent pods only for washing your clothes.

"What the heck is going on people? Use Tide Pods for washing, not eating," Gronk says in the short video.

According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, in 2017, more than 10,500 exposures to highly concentrated laundry detergents by children of ages five or younger were reported.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission says that six adults with cognitive impairment and two children have died as a result of ingesting the laundry pacs.

In response to the challenge, Tide's parent company Procter & Gamble, issued a statement:

"Our laundry pacs are a highly concentrated detergent meant to clean clothes and they're used safely in millions of households every day. They should be only used to clean clothes and kept up, closed and away from children. They should not be played with, whatever the circumstance is, even if meant as a joke."

Following the Tide Pod Challenge, memes have popped up all over social media where Tide Pods are depicted as food inside bowls, plates and frying pans. A social media user even came up with an edible Tide Pod recipe.

Here's to hoping kids will actually listen to their role models in 2018, or that at least this trend dies down quickly.