Stuntman’s warning about ‘incomprehensible’ selfie risks

The selfie craze has gone to such extremes that even a veteran stuntman is shocked by how the risks people will take for the perfect pic.

Jimmy Christiansen risks his life for a living, but told A Current Affair not even he would be willing to attempt some of what he's seen on social media.

"Even for someone in my kind of work, that stuff is just incomprehensible, to be honest with you," he said.

"It just doesn't make sense that you'd risk all of that for a photo."

The topic of potentially deadly selfies has arisen again after a woman at a US zoo was attacked trying to take a photo with a jaguar.

Since 2011, the quest for extreme selfies has killed more than 250 people around the world.

Last year alone, two people died at Cape Salandar in Sydney's Sutherland Shire while trying to snap a selfie with a whale.

"What's concerning is the whole narcissistic thing this whole selfie thing is driving," Mr Christiansen said.

"Originally it was the plank, and people were dying with that, and now it's sort of morphed into this selfie mania where people are pushing the boundaries with no experience, no clue as to what they're doing, and that's why people are dying."

Former director of emergency at St Vincent's Hospital, Professor Gordian Fulde, said the rise of social media has made young people more reckless in their behaviour.

"From cars, bikes, everything imaginable, jumping off buildings - it's just a strange, strange phenomenon causing a lot of grief and death," he said.

"One photo is not worth dying or getting paraplegic for."