Parents sue TikTok over child deaths allegedly caused by ‘blackout challenge’
Parents of four British adolescents sued Tiktok from the death of their children, who, they say, were the result of a viral “Call of a call”.
The lawsuit states that Isaac Kenevan, 13 years old, Archie Battersby, 12 years old, Julian Juls Suini, 14 years old, and Maya Walsh, 13 years old, died in 2022, trying to make a “replacing call”, which became popular in social networks in 2021.
The American Law Center for the victims of social networks filed a lawsuit against unlawful death against the Tiktok social networks platform and its mother’s BYTEDANCE on behalf of children on Thursday.
Matthew Bergman, the founder of the legal center for the victims of social networks, said: “It is no coincidence that three of the four children who died from self-equipment after they were exposed to a dangerous and deadly shutdown of the shutdown, all of them correspond to a similar demography.
“Tiktok’s algorithm intentionally aimed at these children with dangerous content to increase the time of participation on the platform and lead to income. It was a clear and deliberate business decision Tiktok, which cost these four children in their lives. ”
According to Tiktok, the search for video or hashtags related to the call have been blocked since 2020. The platform states that it prohibits dangerous content or problems and is aimed at removing them to messages, as well as directing those who are looking for hashtags or videos to the security center.
The complaint was filed with the Supreme Court of Delaware on behalf of the mother Archie, Holly Dance, the mother of Isaac, Lisa Kenevan, Mother Julom, Ellen Rom and the father of Maya, Liam Walsh.
Tiktok is accused of the lawsuit of the fact that he is “a dangerous and addictive product that sells itself as fun and safe for children, while while lushing parents in a false sense of safety.” It says that Tiktok “puts forward dangerous videos and challenges children depending on their age and location in order to increase the time of interaction on the platform for higher incomes.”
The lawsuit also claims that Tiktok told lawmakers around the world that the Blackout challenge was never on his platform, and “is working to lose their assembly of reliable messages that children are exposed and die from the disconnection and similar Calls on the platform. ” It notes that other dangerous problems that were found on Tiktok include those that include medicines, hot water and fire.
The company claimed that the parents believed that the Tiktok is “a cheerful, stupid and safe platform intended for children and youth”, and claims that the children involved were “confident” and “well-being”, and it did not have preliminary problems of mental health. Field
The legal center for victims of social networks presents families who believe that their children were injured from social networks, and filed several other trials against Tiktok about the death of children and young people, including for promoting video showing suicide, self -control and maintenance food behavior by the field
The law firm helped Taveinna Anderson sue the platform in 2022 after her 10-year-old Daughter Niall died after she allegedly took part in the disconnection. The US Court of Appeal canceled the dismissal of a lower court in August 2024.
In February last year, the coroner ruled that Archie “died as a result of a joke or experiment in his house in Sautend-on-si. He said that he could not exclude the problem of turning off the shutdown, but noted that there were “hundreds of other opportunities”.
Julse’s mother advocated the campaign for granting the legal right to access the accounts on the social networks of their children to help understand why they died after she was left without clues regarding the death of her son in 2022.
Changes in the Safety Law on the Internet, which will enter into force in the UK this year, clearly requires that the companies of social networks protect children from dangerous tricks and problems on their platforms, and also to actively prevent children from seeing the forms of high risk content.