You know, a lot of people have made themselves internet famous thanks to their kids doing and saying cute things on camera. And, honestly, the internet wouldn’t be quite the same without them.
But it doesn’t take much for that to cross the line to exploitation. And the parents who will put their kids in danger for a little internet fame? Well, that’s going to backfire on them, as it should.
Alarming video of a toddler playing with a massive python surfaced on social media recently.
The 86-second video starts off by showing the boy, who can’t be more than a couple of years old, calmly relaxing in the huge snake’s coils.
Once he’s decided he has had enough of sitting in the snake’s coils, the boy gets up and tries to grab the snake by the head.
It’s unclear what he thinks he can accomplish with that, but he tries, and he even accidentally hits the snake in the head in the process.
The boy even tries to drag the gigantic python across the floor.
Of course, the snake is undeterred by his efforts and slithers off wherever it wants to go.
With the snake halfway out of the room, the boy returns to the coils, apparently thinking that the snake might give him a ride.
Apparently the boy has figured out that the snake is simply too large to manhandle and will do its own thing anyway, so he’ll just go with the flow.
No surprise, reactions to the video on social media have involved a lot concern for the boy and outrage at his caretakers.
“Wow authorities should look at this kids parents and throw them in jail for putting their kid at risk,” one person wrote on Instagram.
“Ummm snakes are NOT TOYS!” wrote another.
Some also expressed some worry about the snake’s future as well.
“The snake is more stressed than the child is in danger (if that makes sense),” wrote one user. “If it’s domestically born, raised and fed properly, it’s not a threat. However, it could strike the child for harassing it. Bad parenting.”
It’s unknown exactly where the video was shot, but some have speculated that it comes from Indonesia.
Reticulated pythons, which can grow to more than 20 feet in length, are common to Indonesia. While attacks are rare, pythons have been known to consume adults whole, including an Indonesian woman who disappeared from her garden.
Watch the whole video below, if you dare.
