People are throwing cheese at babies in weird new viral challenge

No, really.

It's no secret that the internet is a breeding ground for people recording themselves doing weird things for absolutely no reason.

We've seen the rise and fall of viral trends such as planking, the Harlem Shake challenge, and, even more recently, a social media challenge which saw kids recording short videos of themselves 'eating' their own fingers.

We can all agree that we've witnessed and maybe even participated in some pretty strange viral trends.

On what is a whole new level of odd and pointless, however, people are actually throwing cheese at their babies faces.

The challenge is known as the 'cheesed' or 'cheese challenge', and started after user @unclehxlmes posted a video of him throwing a thin slice of cheese at a toddler.

The video quickly garnered as many as 10.3 million views, and quickly inspired other willing participants to start throwing cheese at their own perplexed infants.

Here are a few of the videos that have been uploaded so far:

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The challenge has gathered a mixed response from users on Twitter, with some simply viewing it as a bit of harmless fun: 'THIS IS SO FUNNY AND CUTE'

Other people, however, have been angered by the trend. One user took to Twitter to highlight their concern for the game by stating: 'How many of the parents would volunteer to have food thrown at their face, especially when u have no way of defending yourself, contained in a high chair..'

Read more: 'Stop calling your child a dick on social media' Mum explains why she's not a fan of recent trend

The individual who first posted the video, @unclehxlmes, has since deleted his video and issued an apology to anyone offended by the content. The young user even admitted that he pinched the video off of Facebook, so he did not actually know the baby that was featured.

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His announcement hasn't stopped people from continuing on the bizarre trend, and only time will tell as to whether it will become more popular or quickly fall to the wayside just as quickly as it began.

Freelance Lifestyle Writer

Niamh McCollum is a freelance lifestyle writer who has written for Future titles GoodTo and Marie Claire UK, plus the Irish Independent. The Dublin-based journalist specialises in stories 

affecting families - from health updates, to the freshest parenting debates and celebrity announcements.