The TikTok ‘blackout challenge’ has now allegedly killed seven kids

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

TikTok is facing multiple lawsuits from parents who say their children died of strangulation attempting the "blackout challenge" after the app showed them videos of other people doing it. According to the complaint, at least seven children died last year while attempting the challenge, which encourages users to choke themselves with belts, purse strings, or anything similar until passing out. The children who died were under the age of fifteen.

We aren't going to go into the distressing details of the cases, but you can read the full complaint below for more background on some of the children, and how they ended up doing the challenge

The parents of two children filed a lawsuit. It says that TikTok was aware of the problem and that several other children died after attempting the challenge. The cases listed are:

• A 10-year-old in Italy who reportedly died in January 2021
• A 12-year-old in Colorado who reportedly died in March 2021
• A 14-year-old in Australia who reportedly died in June 2021
• A 12-year-old in Oklahoma who reportedly died in July 2021
• A 10-year-old in Pennsylvania who reportedly died in December 2021

The company is being sued by the mother of a Pennsylvania 10-year-old. TikTok told The Washington Post that it had blocked users from searching for the challenge because it could be dangerous.

The new suit says that the children weren't looking for challenges when they saw the videos. It was put in front of them on the main screen of the app. The company was accused of having decided that the Blackout Challenge videos were appropriate for small children.

The company's previous statement was only given by the spokesman.

This disturbing ‘challenge,’ which people seem to learn about from sources other than TikTok, long predates our platform and has never been a TikTok trend. We remain vigilant in our commitment to user safety and would immediately remove related content if found. Our deepest sympathies go out to the family for their tragic loss.

Competitors are attempting to integrate challenges into their platforms in order to appeal to TikTok users. Some challenges are simply doing a dance move. Students were encouraged to steal or destroy school property as a result of the challenge. Sometimes the company is linked to challenges that are spread on other sites or even ones that are seemingly made up, because the platform is so well known for its challenges.

TikTok has a duty to monitor the videos and challenges shared, posted, and/or circulating on its app and platform to make sure that dangerous and deadly videos are not posted, shared, and/or circulating.

The access children have to its platform has been the subject of lawsuits. The Federal Trade Commission charged it with allowing users under the age of 13 to sign up. The mode allows parents to link their accounts to their children's and control how much time they spend on the app.