Blackout Challenge
Why this Tik Tok trend has already cost children their lives
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The Blackout Challenge: A TikTok trend that has already killed children. An eight-year-old and a nine-year-old choked themselves to death. The parents are now suing the social network.
Dance or animal videos, funny parodies and challenges: There are plenty of these on the TikTok platform, which also appeals to many young people. The challenges in particular are now fatal for some young people. They are simply imitated without questioning, and they are often seen as a test of courage.
Blackout Challenge: Two young girls choked themselves to death
Blackout means something like “losing consciousness”. And that’s exactly what the challenge is about. Users film themselves choking themselves until they pass out. The videos are then uploaded and usually get a lot of clicks and likes.
The fate of two girls from the USA shows how dangerous this trend is. The eight and nine-year-olds strangled themselves with a dog leash and rope and lost their lives to the internet challenge.
The dead girls’ parents are suing TikTok
The girls’ parents have now filed a lawsuit against TikTok in a Los Angeles court. The network is accused of spreading the “Blackout Challenge” “deliberately and repeatedly”. TikTok’s algorithm suggested the challenge to the girls, encouraging them to take part without realizing how dangerous it can be.
The lawsuit reveals that there have also been deaths from the challenge in other countries, such as Italy and Australia. This is not the first dangerous challenge. TikTok, which is owned by China-based company Bytedance, initially did not respond to requests for comment.
Sources used: zdf.de, chip.de