Although the dust has far from settled on the issue, enough is known about a prank of sorts Friday that resulted in the closure of nearly a dozen schools in the Upper Peninsula alone to broadly condemn what happened.

For any readers who might be a half-step behind, a good number of schools shuttered their doors Friday after police became aware of a potential threat of violence that reportedly originated from the online service, TikTok.

Never heard of TikTok? Lots and lots of people have. Millions upon millions of people log on daily to watch short videos of people falling on their faces, flipping pancakes, dancing little dances, throwing Frisbees and the such. There is virtually no end to the kind of content, comedic and otherwise, that one can find on TikTok.

Like a lot of things online, the platform is generally viewed as harmless unless used for nefarious purposes, which is reportedly what happened starting Thursday when reports of a so-called TikTok challenge made the rounds.

This anonymous challenge either stated or implied that shootings would take place in schools Friday.

In a nation and state already on edge from the recent murder of four students in a high school downstate, this was not viewed as humorous in the least. For its part TikTok denies there was ever a threat.

Some schools canceled classes altogether while others increased security but stayed in session. In still other cases, parents kept children home, just to be safe.

Thankfully, the police are involved and hopefully will determine who did what, bringing the full weight of the law into play. But with the communications statutes being what they are in this country, it’s not at all clear to us what can be done.

What is crystal clear, however, is that this is yet another dark example of what the internet in so many cases has become — an easy, low-risk way to inflict misery.

We believe increasingly people are getting tired of it. We know we sure are.