00:00Kids around the country are breaking into abandoned hospitals, psychiatric wards, and jails
00:04in a new urban exploring trend that is taking over the internet. I spoke to local New York
00:10City kids who told me that urbexing is becoming a completely mainstream pastime with kids breaking
00:15into abandoned subway stations and subway cars just for the kicks. One urban explorer told me
00:20that he gets this feeling that he's so free and nobody's going to stop him when he's in abandoned
00:25spaces. Quote, it's a weird feeling when you're in a building that no one cares about and nobody
00:29goes into. It triggers this thing in your brain where you're like holy I could do anything. And
00:34honestly the photos that they get and the way that history is basically frozen in time in some of these
00:39spaces is understandably thrilling. But accessing spaces that are not open to the public and have
00:46not been adequately maintained can be hugely risky. Every one of the urban explorers that I spoke to
00:52had either personally experienced or witnessed somebody get injured whether it's through
00:57stairways collapsing or floors collapsing and people falling through. I spoke to families who
01:02have experienced tragedy as a result of urban exploring as well including the family of Trayvon
01:07Anderson who fell 12 feet from a ladder when he was climbing out of a sewage drain and died of
01:14head
01:14injuries on the scene. Another family that of Rebecca Bunting told me that their daughter was in a storm
01:20drain exploring and taking photographs and ended up drowning when there was a flash flood. One of the themes that
01:26really stuck out to me here is that this is not a new pastime. Prior generations have done similar
01:31things but all of a sudden it's blowing up in part because of social media but also because young
01:35people struggle to find actual spaces open to them. The cost of living has become so expensive and also
01:42places just like malls where people would stroll around are more and more a thing of the past. So while
01:48this is obviously a dangerous trend I think it is also a symptom of the fact that young people are
01:52trying to actually get outside to explore the world and to feel some real life thrills.
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