Three sets of parents are suing TikTok after they lost daughters due to the Blackout Challenge that is rampant on the social media platform. Now parents are being warned to watch out for this dangerous viral trend.
What is the TikTok Blackout Challenge and why is it so dangerous?
By the name alone, the inherent dangers of this challenge alone are fairly self-explanatory. In fact, this type of trend has been around since 2008. It was already having serious consequences back then, leading to 82 deaths, the CDC reported. Back then it went by the “Choking Challenge” or “Pass Out Challenge.”
But the current “Blackout Challenge” became popularized in 2021 as younger people moved from older sites like Facebook and YouTube to the newer TikTok platform which made its debut in 2016, and many of them are discovering this challenge for the first time.
The deadly danger
The challenge involves intentionally trying to hold one’s breath or to choke oneself or another person, Women’s Health reports.
One object of the challenge is to obtain a brief euphoric state or “high.” The euphoric feeling comes from the brain being deprived of oxygen, similar to what happens when someone is choking, drowning, or having cardiac arrest, Dr. Nick Flynn explained to the Irish Examiner.
“If you have low oxygen to the brain for over three minutes you can get brain damage and if you have low oxygen to the brain for over five minutes it can result in death,” Dr. Flynn said.
Parents sue TikTok over deaths of daughters
At least three sets of parents are suing TikTok over the deaths of their daughters who attempted the challenge after watching a video on the social media platform.
A Milwaukee Wisconsin family is suing TikTok after their nine-year-old daughter died doing the Blackout Challenge in February 2021, ABC reported.
In another lawsuit, the parents of an eight-year-old from Texas also found their daughter dead after re-creating the challenge in a short video.
In yet another case, the parents of a ten-year-old Pennsylvania girl are suing TikTok over her death in December 2021.
ABC News was referred by a TikTok spokesperson to a company statement released last year regarding the Blackout Challenge, which claims the challenge predates the platform and has never been a TikTok-specific trend.
