Framingham Police Issue Warning on ‘Orbeez’ Social Media Challenge

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FRAMINGHAM – The Framingham Police sent out a warning on Tuesday afternoon, April 5, in regards to the “Orbeez” social media challenge.

This challenge encourages participants, typically teenagers, to video themselves approach pedestrians and shoot them with water-filled beads from high powered water bead guns and to post the results on TikTok

Orbeez is a name brand of these water beads but there are numerous manufacturers.

This challenge has resulted in serious injuries to victims and those responsible facing Felony level charges.

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“We would like parents to be aware of a dangerous trend happening across the country sometimes called the “Orbeez Challenge” where juveniles are encouraged to shoot at people with “Orbeez” gel-based beads or similar. These guns can look like a real firearm or may be altered to look more real. It is believed the projectiles can be fired at up to 170 ft per second. This has the potential to cause serious injuries and may lead to criminal charges for those involved. We ask parents to discuss the dangers of this type of activity with their children,” wrote Framingham Police on social media.

Some individuals have frozen the beads making them more destructive

The velocity settings on some water bead guns can be adjusted to as high as 250 feet per second (similar to a bb gun designed to shoot steel bb rounds)

Many of these water bead guns match the appearance of actual firearms; it’s impossible at a quick glance to tell the difference.