Blackout Challenge On Social Media
GoFundMeArriani Jaileen Arroyo, a nine-year-old who died after participating in the Blackout Challenge.
Another social media challenge that has led to multiple fatalities is the Blackout Challenge. This challenge involves choking yourself until you lose consciousness, with the goal of achieving “euphoria” as you wake up. But past a certain point, the “blackout” becomes hard to control, and several young people have lost their lives participating in the challenge.
While this particular challenge was popularized on TikTok around 2021, similar “choking games” have been around for a while. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 82 deaths were reported from similar games between 1995 and 2007, mostly adolescent boys.
The recent Blackout Challenge popularized on TikTok has been blamed for at least 20 deaths of children, according to The Independent. Many parents and organizations across America believe that the rise of TikTok during the lockdowns and school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic led to these deaths. More than 12,000 parents signed a letter, sponsored by the advocacy group ParentsTogether, to officials at TikTok, asking for stricter regulation of dangerous trends like these and the underage usage of the app.
TikTokFollowing outcry from parents of children who died during the Blackout Challenge, TikTok restricted the search term.
“With millions of young kids on TikTok, dangerous challenges can spread like wildfire and quickly turn tragic, as with the recent death of a 12-year-old boy in Oklahoma,” said Justin Ruben, co-director of ParentsTogether, in a statement, according to USA Today.
Following the outcry — and numerous lawsuits — TikTok eventually restricted the search term related to the Blackout Challenge.
