A dangerous new trend is making its way across the internet, it's called the "Tide Pod Challenge" and it dares kids to eat the detergent. Health Reporter Erin Billups take a closer look.

The so-called Tide Pod Challenge has gone viral.

Teenagers are putting toxic detergent pods in their mouth and showing the results on social media.

It's even lead Tide to hire New England Patriots star player and pop culture sensation Ron Gronkowski to tell kids not to do it:

Much of the online Tide Pod Challenge posts have been taken down.

Google, the parent company of YouTube, says it is working quickly to remove any content that encourages dangerous activities.

We went to a store in Manhattan to buy Tide Pods for this segment and they were locked-up.

A salesperson telling us it is because people keep stealing the Tide Pods.

So, just how much harm could your teenager do — putting this poison in his or her mouth?

The answer — a lot:

"Whenever you put some of these caustics in your mouth you can have oral airway irritation, irritation to the back of your throat to the back of your airway and to your esophagus," said Dr. Ruben Olmedo. "That can compromise your breathing mechanism and also your swallowing mechanism."

Olmedo is a toxicologist who specializes in emergency medicine.

When we caught up with him at Mount Sinai, he was teaching his medical students what to do if a patient has ingested a Tide Pod.

He says parents should call 911 — especially if their child is having trouble breathing — but he said, do not give them water and do not make them throw up:

"We don't know how much injury that it's caused to your airway," Dr. Olmedo said. "The back of your throat, the back of your esophagus. And giving them anything to drink, might worsen that and might induce vomiting that we don't want."

The city's poison control center received 278 calls about pods in 2016 nearly 300 in 2017.

It's a real issue that families need to pay attention to for the young, and the old.

There are reports of seniors with dementia mistaking the pods for candy.