Parents Sue TikTok for Death of Young Girls 'Hanged' in Black Out Challenge

Parents of two girls aged eight and nine who accidentally hanged themselves after trying on the "Blackout Challenge" are suing TikTok for its algorithm that repeatedly showed the deadly challenge, encouraging the girls to try it. The alarming trend on TikTok involved holding the challenger's breath until they pass out.

The two girls, Lalani Erika Walton, 8, from Tennessee, and Arriani Jaileen Arroyo, 9, from Milwaukee, died after they tried to choke themselves until they became unconscious while copying the deadly trend. It is also called the fainting game, the game of choking or speed dreaming.

Watson died in July 2021, while Arroyo died in February last year. The families said that neither of the girls was suicidal.

According to Daily Mail, the wrongful death lawsuits were filed at the Los Angeles County Superior Court on Friday, alleging that the app's algorithm recommended the videos of strangulation challenges to the young girls.

The fate of "Blackout Challenge" victims

Last year, Walton was found in her room "hanging from her bed with a rope around her neck." When the police checked the girl's phone and tablet, they found that she was repeatedly viewing the blackout challenge. Meanwhile, Arroyo was found hanging from the family dog's leash in a room at their family home. The family said they rushed her to a hospital and placed her on a ventilator, but she was already brain dead. The family had to decide to take her off life support.

The two girls are not the first children who died while trying the challenge. Also, last year, a ten-year-old girl Nylah Anderson of Philadelphia, was found unconscious in her mom's bedroom closet. Like the two girls, she also hung herself from a purse strap after seeing videos related to the "blackout challenge."

Nylah endured suffering as she struggled, fought for her breath, and slowly asphyxiated. Nylah's mother, Tawainna, said they found her daughter in her closet and tried multiple rounds of CPR until the paramedics arrived. The mom said her daughter spent five days in the pediatric ICU and died on December 12, 2021. The mother filed a lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance in May, per Business Insider.

Other reported deaths of children aged 10 to 14 in Australia, Italy, Colorado, and Oklahoma were linked to the deadly challenge.

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The bereaved family's lawsuit

Nylah's mother said the company intentionally designs its app to keep its young users' attention at any costs.

According to the Social Media Victims Law Center's Complaint Claims, Tiktok knew that the deadly Blackout Challenge was spreading through their app, and their algorithm fed the children the challenge. 

The complaint added that the company knew or should have known that failing to take immediate action to stop the spread of the deadly challenge could cause injuries and death among children.

In response, TikTok admitted the Blackout Challenge is "disturbing" but has denied in the past that the deadly challenge is a Tiktok trend, saying that there were instances of children dying from "the choking game" on other platforms before TikTok existed, Los Angeles Times reported. The Chinese-owned company assures that they remain vigilant in their commitments to user safety and would immediately remove the content if found.

TikTok has blocked the #BlackoutChallenge from its search engine.

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