[News Terms] The Horrific Game 'Blackout Challenge'

Bereaved Families Sue TikTok for "Providing Harmful Content"
20 Children Died in the US Over the Past 18 Months

[Asia Economy Reporter Seunggon Han] The Blackout Challenge is a game popular among some children on the social networking service (SNS) TikTok. This challenge involves choking oneself until passing out, and is also called the "choking challenge" or "pass out challenge." As a result, tragic accidents, including children dying during the challenge, have continuously occurred.

According to foreign media reports such as Bloomberg on the 2nd, 20 children have died while attempting this challenge over the past 18 months. Fifteen were aged 12 or younger, and five were 13 or 14 years old. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s, 82 children died from the Blackout Challenge in 31 U.S. states. Most of the deceased children were between 11 and 16 years old. The challenge reappeared on TikTok in 2021 and rapidly spread online. Some sites even banned the term "Blackout Challenge."

In July of last year, a lawsuit was filed following the deaths of Lallani Erica Runey Walton (8) from Texas and Ariani Jailyn Arroyo (9) from Wisconsin, who died attempting the Blackout Challenge. Ariani's parents filed the lawsuit claiming that TikTok provided harmful content to minors, including children, and failed to warn users or legal guardians about the app's addictive nature.

Photo by Yonhap News

At the time, the parents' attorney stated, "TikTok must be held responsible for providing harmful content to young girls." He added, "TikTok designed the program with billions of dollars of investment despite knowing that this challenge could lead to users' deaths."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.