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According to the Los Angeles Times, the lawsuit was filed by the families of eight-year-old Lalani Erika Walton and nine-year-old Arriani Jaileen Arroyo, both of whom were found dead after allegedly attempting a dangerous TikTok challenge. This blackout challenge involves participants deliberately choking or strangling themselves in order to lose consciousness. While similar dares predate TikTok by more than twenty years, both girls reportedly died after attempting to replicate videos they saw on TikTok.
The Social Media Victims Law Center assisted the Walton and Arroyo families in filing their wrongful death lawsuits. The organization, which provides legal services for the families of children harmed by social media, alleges that TikTok is a defective and dangerous product. It claims that TikTok’s designer built it to maximize add revenue by encouraging addictive behavior while lacking adequate safety procedures for kids and families. The organization alleges that the social media giant was aware of the challenge and its continued presence on the platform but TikTok did not take sufficient action to keep minors safe.
As the LA Times notes, Lalani and Arriani were not the first victims of this lethal TikTok challenge. Multiple other children ages ten to fourteen have reportedly perished while attempting it. One of these deaths, that of a ten-year-old in Palermo, Italy, prompted TikTok to ban children under thirteen from accessing the platform in that country. However, no such restrictions exist for users in the United States, where the most recent deaths occurred.
TikTok did not reply when the LA Times reached out for a comment. However, the social media platform has addressed the challenge previously, denying that the blackout challenge is a TikTok trend. Instead, the platform points to similar dares dating back to at least 1995, which the CDC believes have killed at least 82 youths in the US alone. TikTok has also blocked search results for the #BlackoutChallenge.
The Social Media Victims Law Center assisted the Walton and Arroyo families in filing their wrongful death lawsuits. The organization, which provides legal services for the families of children harmed by social media, alleges that TikTok is a defective and dangerous product. It claims that TikTok’s designer built it to maximize add revenue by encouraging addictive behavior while lacking adequate safety procedures for kids and families. The organization alleges that the social media giant was aware of the challenge and its continued presence on the platform but TikTok did not take sufficient action to keep minors safe.
As the LA Times notes, Lalani and Arriani were not the first victims of this lethal TikTok challenge. Multiple other children ages ten to fourteen have reportedly perished while attempting it. One of these deaths, that of a ten-year-old in Palermo, Italy, prompted TikTok to ban children under thirteen from accessing the platform in that country. However, no such restrictions exist for users in the United States, where the most recent deaths occurred.
TikTok did not reply when the LA Times reached out for a comment. However, the social media platform has addressed the challenge previously, denying that the blackout challenge is a TikTok trend. Instead, the platform points to similar dares dating back to at least 1995, which the CDC believes have killed at least 82 youths in the US alone. TikTok has also blocked search results for the #BlackoutChallenge.
