British families sue TikTok over ‘blackout challenge' child deaths
TikTok is being sued by the families of four British children who died during a 'blackout challenge' craze that went viral on social media in 2022.
The families of Archie Battersbee, Isaac Kenevan, Julian 'Jools' Sweeney and Maia Walsh have taken legal action against the technology giant, which is owned by China's Bytedance, in a wrongful death lawsuit filed in the US. It is believed to be the first time British parents have sued TikTok in this manner.
The children, aged between 12 and 14, all died after passing out. They are believed to have suffered fatal injuries while copying a so-called 'blackout challenge'.
Matthew Bergman, a lawyer at the Social Media Victims Law Center, which is representing the families, said: 'TikTok's algorithm purposely targeted these children with dangerous content to increase their engagement time on the platform and drive revenue.'
Lawyers for the families claimed TikTok was a 'dangerous and addictive product that markets itself as fun and safe for children, while lulling parents into a false sense of security'.
TikTok has banned blackout challenge videos since 2020 and blocks searches or hashtags related to the videos. It also bars other dangerous pranks from its app. The company declined to comment.
Archie, 12, from Essex, died in 2022 after he was found non-responsive by his mother on April 7. He was taken off life support in August that year after a legal battle by his mother to keep him alive. She did not know he was using TikTok at the time of the incident.
She believes he had attempted the blackout challenge, although a coroner did not find any evidence he was copying something he had seen online. His death was ruled a 'prank or experiment' gone wrong.
Isaac, 13, died in March 2022 at his home in Essex. Lawyers for the family said his parents had believed the app was 'a fun, silly, and safe platform designed for kids and young people'. They later found videos on his phone in which he attempted to pass out.
Julian Sweeney, 14, from Cheltenham, died on April 13, 2022. Her family has campaigned for access to her child's data in what has been dubbed 'Jools' Law'.
Maia, 13, also from Essex, started using social media under her father's supervision, but lawyers for the family say she 'quickly became hooked on TikTok and began having trouble sleeping'.
A police investigation into her death in October 2022 is ongoing. Her father says she was targeted with dangerous challenge and self-harm videos in the days leading to her death.
The lawsuit, filed in Delaware, alleges the deaths of the children were the 'foreseeable result of ByteDance's engineered addiction-by-design and programming decisions'. It alleges they were bombarded with an 'endless stream of harms'. It said these were 'not harms the children searched for or wanted to see when their use of TikTok began'.
The legal claim is thought to be the first time British families have sued TikTok through the US courts over the death of a child. TikTok, Meta, Snapchat and other social media companies have been hit by hundreds of legal claims by US families and schools, alleging their products are defective and cause harm to children. The companies are fighting the cases.
TikTok narrowly avoided being blocked in the US in January, after President Donald Trump granted it a reprieve on a law that would have barred the app from US smartphone stores over national security concerns due to its China links. The company has always denied posing a security risk.
In 2021, TikTok strengthened its rules around online challenges to automatically detect and block more potentially dangerous content. In its online rules, TikTok says: 'The majority [of challenges] are fun and safe, but some promote harmful behaviours including the risk of serious injury. Our Community Guidelines prohibit dangerous challenges.'
While most online 'challenge' videos which go viral on social media are mundane or silly, a study commissioned by TikTok found around one in 50 teenagers had taken part in a 'dangerous' online challenge and around one in 300 had taken part in a 'really dangerous' challenge.
There have also previously been hoax challenges, which have been picked up by the media and seen false claims spread online.
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