Parents of four British teenagers who believe that their children died after participating in viral trends (challenge) that circulated on TikTok in 2022 have sued the video-sharing platform.
According to the parents, the children, Isaac Kenevan, Archie Battersbee, Julian “Jools” Sweeney and Maia Walsh, died while attempting the trend called “blackout challenge”.
BBC reports that the US-based Social Media Victims Law Center filed the lawsuit on Thursday against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance on behalf of the children’s parents.
Meanwhile, searches for videos or hashtags related to the challenge on TikTok have been blocked since 2020.
TikTok had clarified that it prohibits dangerous content or challenges on the platform, and directs those who search for hashtags or videos to its Safety Centre.
The complaint was filed in the Superior Court of the State of Delaware on behalf of Isaac’s mum Lisa Kenevan, Archie’s mother Hollie Dance, Jools’ mother Ellen Roome and Maia’s dad Liam Walsh.
It claims the deaths were “the foreseeable result of ByteDance’s engineered addiction-by-design and programming decisions”, which were “aimed at pushing children into maximizing their engagement with TikTok by any means necessary”.