TikTok, a video app popular among young people, has been accused of causing
the deaths of two children who participated in a challenge that circulated on
the platform, according to a lawsuit filed on Friday.
Filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the lawsuit alleges that
TikTok’s algorithm recommended what’s known as the “blackout
challenge” to 8-year-old Lalani Erika Walton and 9-year-old Arriani
Jaileen Arroyo, both of whom died in 2021 from strangling themselves. The
challenge encourages people to choke themselves until they become
unconscious.
The children’s parents, who are being represented by the Social Media
Victims Law Center, are suing TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance,
for allegedly concealing the dangers of the app from consumers. The lawsuit was
reported earlier by The Los Angeles Times.
“TikTok has invested billions of dollars to intentionally design and
develop its product to encourage, enable, and push content to teens and
children that Defendant knows to be problematic and highly detrimental to its
minor users’ mental health,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit comes as the app faces increasing scrutiny over the impact it’s
having on young people. In May, the mother of a 10-year-old girl who died
in Pennsylvania sued TikTok, alleging her child died from the
“blackout challenge.” That lawsuit also lists other victims. Attorneys
general from several states, including California, are also looking into the
harmful effects TikTok can have on young people.
TikTok algorithms exploit users under the ages of 18 whose brains aren’t
fully developed enough to control their impulses and emotions, the Los Angeles
lawsuit says. Despite knowing about the dangerous “blackout
challenge,” the company “failed to take reasonable and appropriate
steps,” such as blocking or removing the videos, to prevent kids from
seeing this content.
Walton believed that if she posted a video of herself doing the challenge
she would become famous, according to the lawsuit. After her death, her family
learned from police that the 8-year-old had repeatedly been watching videos of
the dangerous challenge on TikTok.
Arroyo also saw dangerous TikTok challenges and videos on TikTok that
encouraged her to participate in the “blackout challenge.” Her mom
also told her not to participate in these challenges, according to the lawsuit.
TikTok didn’t respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for TikTok
told People magazine in 2021 that the “blackout challenge”
predated social media and “has never been a TikTok trend.” The Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention warned the public about a choking game
in 2008 in which young people would try to choke themselves and others to
achieve a brief “high.”
TikTok’s rules prohibit dangerous challenges, and the company launched a
page on its website that encourages people to stop and think if an
online challenge is harmful before attempting it. TikTok currently directs
users who search for the “blackout challenge” on its app to this
page.
