Vancouver police are warning parents about a bizarre dare circulating on social media that challenges teenagers to run away from home and hide out for 72 hours.

Authorities blame the dare, dubbed the Game of 72, for the recent disappearances of two girls in Britain, which triggered a massive and wasteful police search, and a similar incident in France

Const. Brian Montague said there haven’t been any reported cases in Vancouver, but parents should still talk to their children about how reckless taking part would be.

“It’s beyond foolish,” Montague said. “Police may get involved, family members get involved, friends get involved. You affect a lot of people.”

Given that authorities deal with up to 4,000 missing person cases every year, searching for people who are deliberately hiding would be an unfortunate waste of resources, he added.

“Our team of missing persons investigators is extremely busy. The last thing we want to do is add to their workload,” Montague said.

Police said teenagers should also know that if they run away, private information about them could be released to the public – a common practice in missing person cases.

“We have to do everything we can,” Montague said. “Some of their very private information could be made public by police in order to find them, and I think that’s something they clearly don’t want to happen.”

It’s unlikely charges would be recommended against teens who take part, but police said they wouldn’t rule them out.

The Game of 72 is the latest in a string of dangerous dares that have made the rounds online, including the ongoing Cinnamon Challenge, where teenagers record themselves trying to swallow a spoonful of cinnamon. Participants risk pneumonia and even collapsed lungs, and the challenge has put some people in hospital.

Even worse, the Neknomination drinking game, which coaxes kids to chug hard alcohol, has resulted in several deaths in North America and abroad.

Montague said it’s easier than ever for these kinds of trends to spread around the world, and the Game of 72 won’t be the last.

“When this is gone we’ll see something take its place, which is why it’s really important for parents to have just these regular conversations with their kids about just how foolish stuff like this is,” he said.

With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Scott Roberts