What is the TikTok Blackout Challenge? 7 kids die after trying it

New Del­hi: Tik­Tok is known for its reels and viral videos, as well as its for­ward-think­ing men­tal­i­ty. But who knew a fad could be dead­ly as 7 chil­dren under the age of 15 died as a result of the infa­mous ‘Black­out Chal­lenge’ on the Chi­nese short video pro­duc­tion platform. 

Accord­ing to The Verge, Tik­Tok users are encour­aged to “choke them­selves with belts, purs­es or what­ev­er until they pass out.” This had a vio­lent back­lash online, with many law­suits from par­ents claim­ing their chil­dren died of stran­gu­la­tion while com­plet­ing the “black­out chal­lenge”. Read more: iPhone 11 and 12 get BUMPER dis­counts in Flip­kart Elec­tron­ics sale: Check deals here 

The par­ents of eight-year-old Lalani Wal­ton and nine-year-old Arri­ani Arroyo filed the lat­est case. READ ALSO: Musk’s $44B Twit­ter Deal In Seri­ous Trou­ble: Report 

Accord­ing to mul­ti­ple sources, a 10-year-old died in Italy in Jan­u­ary 2021; a 12-year-old in Col­orado, Unit­ed States, died in March 2021; a 14-year-old in Aus­tralia died in June 2021; a 12-year-old in Okla­homa died in July 2021; and anoth­er 10-year-old in Penn­syl­va­nia died in Decem­ber 2021. 

Tawain­na Ander­son, the moth­er of Nylah Ander­son, a 10-year-old Penn­syl­va­nia child, is also suing Tik­Tok, claim­ing that the app “pro­mot­ed extreme­ly and unac­cept­ably dan­ger­ous tasks.” 

Some cas­es claimed that when the young­sters watched the films, they were not look­ing for challenges.

Tik­Tok, on the oth­er hand, “placed it right in front of them on the app’s main screen, the For You tab.” 

Accord­ing to a Tik­Tok spokesper­son, this trou­bling “chal­lenge” that indi­vid­u­als seem to be hear­ing about from places oth­er than Tik­Tok pre­dates our plat­form and was nev­er a Tik­Tok fad. 

“We remain vig­i­lant in our com­mit­ment to user safe­ty and would quick­ly remove any asso­ci­at­ed con­tent if dis­cov­ered. Our hearts go out to the fam­i­ly for their ter­ri­ble loss.”