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Saturday, Feb 08, 2025
Outside the box.
TikTok Sued Over Alleged Child Deaths Caused by 'Blackout Challenge'
Four British teenagers died after attempting the 'blackout challenge' on TikTok, prompting a wrongful death lawsuit against the social media platform and its parent company.
The parents of four British teenagers have sued TikTok over the deaths of their children, which they claim were the result of the viral 'blackout challenge'.
The lawsuit accuses TikTok of being a dangerous and addictive product that markets itself as fun and safe for children, while lulling parents into a false sense of security.
The Social Media Victims Law Center, which represents families who believe their children have been harmed by social media, has filed several other lawsuits against TikTok over the deaths of children and young adults, including for promoting videos showing suicide, self-harm and eating disorder content.
The law firm helped Tawainna Anderson sue the platform in 2022 after her 10-year-old daughter, Nylah, died after allegedly taking part in the blackout challenge.
A US appeals court overturned a lower court's dismissal of her case in August 2024. In February last year, a coroner ruled that Archie had 'died as a result of a prank or experiment gone wrong' at his home in Southend-on-Sea.
He said he could not rule out the blackout challenge but noted that there were 'hundreds of other possibilities'.
Changes to the Online Safety Act, which come into force in the UK this year, explicitly require social media companies to protect children from encountering dangerous stunts and challenges on their platforms, as well as to proactively prevent children from seeing the highest-risk forms of content.
The lawsuit accuses TikTok of being a dangerous and addictive product that markets itself as fun and safe for children, while lulling parents into a false sense of security.
The Social Media Victims Law Center, which represents families who believe their children have been harmed by social media, has filed several other lawsuits against TikTok over the deaths of children and young adults, including for promoting videos showing suicide, self-harm and eating disorder content.
The law firm helped Tawainna Anderson sue the platform in 2022 after her 10-year-old daughter, Nylah, died after allegedly taking part in the blackout challenge.
A US appeals court overturned a lower court's dismissal of her case in August 2024. In February last year, a coroner ruled that Archie had 'died as a result of a prank or experiment gone wrong' at his home in Southend-on-Sea.
He said he could not rule out the blackout challenge but noted that there were 'hundreds of other possibilities'.
Changes to the Online Safety Act, which come into force in the UK this year, explicitly require social media companies to protect children from encountering dangerous stunts and challenges on their platforms, as well as to proactively prevent children from seeing the highest-risk forms of content.
