The latest internet meme involves a significant waste of cheese – and may not be entirely welcomed by the world’s baby community

Name: The cheese challenge.

Age: Five days.

Appearance: Cute, then shocking, then maybe funny, maybe disgraceful, probably not a crime.

Is this one of those internet memes that everyone gets obsessed with for a while, then completely forgets about? It sure is. RIP the cinnamon challenge, the ice bucket challenge, the mannequin challenge.

Amen. They touched so many lives. So, tell me about the cheese challenge. I want to join in with whatever it is. You throw cheese in a baby’s face.

OK. That appears to lack past challenges’ blend of good-natured tomfoolery and informed consent. Yes. Opinion is divided on whether this is an appropriate use of babies.

Or of cheese. Indeed. The view on Mumsnet is mostly disapproving. One commenter said: “I wish people would put this much effort into doing something about poverty or climate change.”

Or more effort, ideally. Still, I suppose it all depends on the cheese. Mozzarella would be fine, or a nice warm brie, but a piece of parmesan is bang out of order. Unless maybe you grate it first … Ah, no. This involves cheese slices. The challenge is to fling one in just the right way so that it lands on the baby’s face and sticks there.

Right. Well, that doesn’t sound dangerous. How did it start? A guy called @unclehxlmes posted a video on Twitter last Thursday, saying “just cheesed my lil brother”. By the time he deleted the tweet on Friday, the clip had been watched more than 10m times.

Why did he delete it? Sounds as if it was doing well. Yeah. Except it turns out the baby wasn’t his brother. He had pinched someone else’s video off Facebook. He says it was “the typical nab tweet for a joke on twitter as people do”.

Oh well, that’s obviously all right then. Yes, but then “it genuinely got way out of hand … I have spoken to the child’s mother … It was very invasive for the family and I would like to apologise.”

I guess things have consequences and stuff. Yeah, I guess so. But the cheese challenge he started is still going strong, with new videos appearing all the time.

How does the baby community feel about this? They have not yet agreed a unified position. Going on the reactions of the babies online, most are startled or nonplussed. Some find the sudden covering of their face with cheese quite funny. Some cry. Some eat the cheese and move on.

I suppose that means they are being paid for it. Does that make it OK? Maybe. I guess it all depends on whether you think babies have dignity to start with.

Not the babies I’ve met. No. Same here.

Do say: “Babies like to dish it out, but they can’t take it.”

Don’t say: “They can throw cheese at whomever they like when they’re 18.”