A warning to parents: A viral "108" Siri prank is putting lives at risk.

Kids can be really silly and spend a lot of time pranking each other. Take my adolescent son who – despite my demands – refused to turn his caller ID back on because “then my friends will know it is me pranking them Mum”.

And trust me when I tell you, they are spending way too much time figuring out how to prank each other. So far he’s just called his friends pretending to be a pizza delivery guy or an angry teacher.

Innocent fun, right?

Not this time.

It turns out kids are telling each other to say to “108” to Siri on their iPhones and not knowing the end result, children are blindly following this instruction, out of curiosity, to see what happens.

But the Siri “108” prank isn’t so innocent because when you say “108” to Siri, emergency services is called. “108” is the equivalent of Triple 0 in India so when you say it to a smart phone in Australia, it dials Triple 0.

So here's how the prank works.

Your children's friend tells them to say "108" to Siri and then close their eyes for five seconds. This is an important part because Siri immediately notifies you that emergency services are being called but will give you five seconds to cancel, explains Rochelle Garner writing for CNet.

The viral prank is straining emergency services and if parents can't stop their kids from doing it, it's well within the rights of law enforcement services in each country to pay their homes a visit.

So make sure you have a conversation with your children about this prank and explain the consequences of placing a strain on our already stretched emergency services.

If that doesn't work then threaten to take away everything they treasure for two weeks if they ever play that prank on someone again.

Listen to an episode of our parenting podcast This Glorious Mess, all about teaching your children the value of a buck....

Do you have concerns over your children playing pranks using their smart phones?