What is the 'Baby Shark Song,' where did it come from and why do children love it?
The baby shark video has been viewed more than 1.6bn times on YouTube
![People are now doing the baby shark challenge (YouTube)](https://cdn.statically.io/img/static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2018/08/24/18/screen-shot-2018-08-24-at-1.28.38-pm.png)
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![Louise Thomas](https://cdn.statically.io/img/static.independent.co.uk/static-assets/support-us/louise-thomas.png)
Louise Thomas
Editor
A catchy educational jingle created for children called the “Baby Shark Song” has gone viral - and it’s resulted in an equally popular social media challenge.
Although the lyrics are likely to get stuck in your head, the song about a shark family has become a hit with children and adults around the world.
What is the baby shark song?
The baby shark song was created by the YouTube channel Pinkfong, a Korean-based channel for kids that creates videos of sing-along songs and dances.
The educational channel, which has more than 10 million subscribers, creates the brightly-coloured videos to help children learn and interact with the cartoon Pinkfong - a prince from the planet Staria.
The song was first released in November 2015 and went viral across south east Asia last summer; but this year it has become a global phenomenon, to the extent that it has had more than 1.6bn views on YouTube.
The baby shark song is now reportedly listed as one of the Top 40 most-viewed videos ever on YouTube.
According to the Pinkfong website, “every day is a new adventure.”
What is the baby shark challenge?
The baby shark challenge began when people began filming themselves recreating the easy shark dance moves.
The viral challenge then morphed into a rendition of the "In My Feelings" challenge, which saw people dancing outside of their cars to Drake’s song by the same name.
![This is why people are doing the baby shark challenge (YouTube)](https://cdn.statically.io/img/static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2018/08/24/18/screen-shot-2018-08-24-at-1.27.09-pm.png)
In the baby shark version, parents are dressing up as sharks and dancing to the tune as their cars continue to move.
One video of a mother who painted her face blue and donned swimming floaties received more than four million views while another features a father in a shark costume.
However, experts warn about participating in the viral baby shark dance as it is not safe to walk alongside a moving car.
“It’s simply dangerous to be jumping out of your moving car to perform this dance,” Jordan Foster, a cyber safety expert and child psychologist told The New Daily.
![The baby shark song was created by Pinkfong (YouTube)](https://cdn.statically.io/img/static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2018/08/24/18/screen-shot-2018-08-24-at-1.25.07-pm.png)
Despite the warnings, there are currently 88,000 Instagram posts tagged with the hashtag #babysharkchallenge.
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