Terrifying video shows the scary reason inflatable armbands don’t guarantee your kids’ safety
A MUM has gone viral after unintentionally showing why armbands aren’t foolproof.
When it comes to swimming and enjoying the summer, many parents do not go to the beach, or the pool, without one essential – armbands.
But as one mum, Katya İleri, recently came to discover in a horrifying way, the popular accessory does not always guarantee safety.
Katya, from Turkey, was on a boat with her young daughter when they agreed to let the child enjoy the sea.
Ready with two armbands, the kid was standing on the edge of the boat, as an adult man was holding her around the waist.
Then, the now-viral clip showed, the grown-up gave the tot one last kiss on the cheek before chucking the girl into the deep waters.
But the moment her body touched the sea, the child immediately slipped out of the armbands due to the impact and disappeared underneath.
Katya, who shared the video online, wrote in the caption in Russian: ”A little recap of today’s holiday.”
The clip, which has been viewed a whopping 69.5million times so far, ended with an uplifting music and text as if it had been a directed movie.
Needless to say, people on Instagram were furious, as thousands flocked to comments in sheer horror.
One said: ”Never use arm floats on children. Ever.”
Someone else agreed, adding: ”A perfect example of a product design getting worse through the years. When I was a kid, water wings would graft themselves to your arm.”
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Another chimed in: ”There’ll be hell to pay if someone tosses my child into the ocean like it’s a kiddie pool.”
”How did he not see that coming? Seriously, w**? So irresponsible,” a fourth was baffled.
”I hope the child was okay,” a social media fan penned.
After being slammed, Katya posted another clip to address the situation.
She insisted that the daughter, who knew how to swim, was keen to enjoy the water with other kids and insisted on jumping off the boat.
As to why the armbands had came off, Katya said that the kid’s body had become slippery from all the sunscreen protection she had applied on her earlier.
At the time of the jump, her father was in the sea, and the daughter was no stranger to water, as she lives by the coast, Katya added.
Despite being popular amongst many parents, ex-Butlins lifeguard Catherine Lofthouse refuses to let her kids wear them.
She recently revealed that after giving his son the swimming accessory, he discovered you couldn’t actually swim properly.
The mum added that ”it only takes one
armband to slip off while a child is thrashing about, then they
really are in danger”.
”I’ve always thought that it should be one adult in the pool per child under the age of five, just because things can go wrong very quickly, especially when parents are lulled into a false sense of security by floats and armbands.
”For me, keeping children close and teaching them the skills they might need to save themselves will always beat armbands’ overinflated claims to safety.”
However, when used correctly, armbands can be ”extremely useful”, experts at SwimWorld said.
It is also worth noting that dropping a child into deep waters is also hardly a normal practice.