Due to their daughters’ alleged involvement in the “blackout challenge” they watched while using the app in 2021, the parents of two children are suing TikTok.
Internet meme website Know Your Meme describes the challenge as one where individuals “asphyxiate themselves to achieve a big headrush.”
According to the website, one factor in the challenge’s growth last year was an Italian child, age 10, who died in January 2021 after tying a belt around her neck.
An 8-year-old and a 9-year-old died while using an app that was allegedly “addictive” and contributing to exposing “children to hazardous content,” according to a complaint filed last week in Los Angeles County Superior Court, according to The New York Times.
The challenge “far predates” the app, according to a statement made by TikTok to People last year, and has “never” been a fad on the platform.
After a 10-year-old girl died after attempting the challenge, a spokeswoman remarked, “We remain diligent in our commitment to user safety and would quickly remove relevant content if detected.”
“The family has our sincere condolences for their awful loss,”
In its response, TikTok also provided a link to a federal investigation into a “choking game” that was blamed for several “unintentional strangulation deaths” of kids between 1995 and 2007.
The “choking game” is one example of a challenge similar to the Blackout Challenge that existed before TikTok, according to Know Your Meme.
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The “Milk Crate Challenge” and the “Tide Pod Challenge” are only two examples of contemporary trends that some have deemed risky.
The managing editor of Know Your Meme, Zach Sweat, told The New York Times that he was unsure whether challenges are “any more harmful” than they have previously been.
The accessibility of these kinds of items and how these algorithms operate, according to Sweat, “broadcasts it to more people.”
