A little boy who appears to be no older than a year old is the subject of a viral video that is currently causing outrage on social media in Indonesia due to apparent parental neglect.
The brief video, shared by viral content aggregator on Instagram @dagelan two days ago, which has been viewed close to 1 million times at the time of writing, shows the boy fearlessly playing with a huge king cobra. Apparently oblivious to the danger the scaly beast can pose, the toddler seems to take great joy in slapping the snake…
… casually holding the cobra by its flared hood…
… and kissing the snake’s snout, laughing as the seemingly wary snake jolts back out of reflex from the boy.
Throughout the video, at least a couple of adults — one of whom was holding the camera — can be heard off frame, laughing along with the boy and even encouraging him to kiss the snake at one point.
It’s not clear exactly where or when the video was taken, but netizens have pointed out that the motorcycle in the background sports an Indonesian license plate and the adults were speaking Indonesian. While the video has gone viral due to @dagelan in the last couple of days, versions of the video can be found dating as far back as two weeks ago on social media.
Inevitably, netizens flooded the comments section with criticism directed at the boy’s parents, accusing them of neglect. One comment read, “what were the parents and the person who filmed the video thinking?” while another read, “If the baby gets bitten, then the parents will regret this. Use your brains.”
There have been no reports yet of Indonesian authorities investigating the video, but in the past officials have gotten involved in some cases of viral videos showing neglectful or abusive behavior by parents.
