what is the blackout challenge tiktok|tiktok blackout challenge 2022:TikTok, the video social media platform, is being sued in the United States by the parents of two young girls who died after taking part in a viral ‘blackout challenge’ in 2021. The families of Lalani Erika Walton, 8, and Arriani Jaileen Arroyo, 9, have accused TikTok of “intentionally” providing the children with deadly videos.
Earlier in May this year, the mother of a 10-year-old girl named Nylah Anderson sued TikTok alleging that her daughter had died after taking the ‘blackout challenge’. The lawsuit alleged that a 14-year-old Australian boy, a 10-year-old Italian girl, a 12-year-old boy in Colorado, United States, and a 12-year-old boy in Oklahoma, US, had earlier died while taking the blackout challenge
Blackout Challenge From Tik Tok
A family is filing a lawsuit against TikTok after their daughter died doing a challenge on the app.Nine-year-old Arriani Arroyo passed away in February 2022 after participating in the “Blackout Challenge.”
“Just the sadness I see in my son’s eyes to sing happy birthday to his sister at her grave. It’s very hard. For all of us. But this is the life now we have to adjust to. We sat at a table of four chairs. We sit now at three,” Arriani’s mom said. “We just never thought there was a darker side to what TikTok allows on its platform.”
A TikTok spokesperson referred ABC News to a statement the company released last year about the challenge, saying it predates the platform and has never been a TikTok trend.
Black Out Challenge
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 trying it. One suit filed against the company in June alleges that at least seven specific children died last year while attempting the challenge, which the complaint says “encourages users to choke themselves with belts, purse strings, or anything similar until passing out.” All the children who reportedly died were under 15 years old.
We’re not going to get 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 most recent lawsuit was filed by the parents of eight-year-old Lalani Walton, and nine-year-old Arriani Arroyo. However, it cites several other children that also died after attempting the challenge as evidence that TikTok was aware of the problem.
tiktok blackout challenge 2022
After the first child died from self-strangulation while attempting a recommended “Blackout Challenge,” there were many steps that TikTok could have taken to shield other kids from the same fate immediately. Instead, a new lawsuit filed in California says TikTok chose to continue profiting from promoting what’s now being described as its deadliest challenge, directly causing the deaths of six more children in 2022.
The lawsuit was filed by the parents of two of those children—girls ages 8 and 9. They claim their kids became addicted to TikTok, were fed a constant stream of seemingly harmless challenge videos persuading them to participate, and then died after attempting the Blackout Challenge. (The Blackout Challenge encourages TikTok users to post videos where they choke themselves until they pass out.)
Rather than blame creators of harmful videos or come after TikTok for publishing videos, the lawsuit instead seeks damages from TikTok for its product design, which directs kids to videos.
what is the blackout challenge tiktok
In a statement, the parents’ legal team at the Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC) summarized the lengthy complaint: “The suit alleges that TikTok’s defective design of its social media product results in an addictive product that is not safe for users and fails to warn minors and their parents that TikTok is addictive and pushes harmful content onto their ‘For You’ page that could endanger their wellbeing.”
TikTok did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment, but a TikTok spokesperson told The New York Times that “the company would not comment on continuing litigation.” The spokesperson also linked to a prior company statement to People magazine about a 10-year-old girl who also died after attempting the Blackout Challenge. At that time, TikTok said that the “disturbing challenge” predated their platform and had never become “a TikTok trend.” Expressing “deepest sympathies” to the family affected in that case, TikTok vowed to “remain vigilant in our commitment to user safety” and “immediately remove related content if found.”