Parents of four British teenagers who believe their children died after their involvement in viral trends (challenge) that circulated on TikTok in 2022 have taken the video-sharing platform to court.
The parents emphasized that their children, Archie Battersbee, Julian “Jools” Sweeney, Maia Walsh and Isaac Kenevan, died while attempting the trend called “blackout challenge”.
Report has it that the US-based Social Media Victims Law Center filed the lawsuit, on behalf of the children’s parent, on Thursday against TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance.
Meanwhile, it was gathered that searches for videos or hashtags related to the challenge on TikTok have been blocked.
The video-sharing platform had explained 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.
The complainants claimed the deaths of their children were the foreseeable result of ByteDance’s engineered addiction-by-design and programming decisions, which were targeted at pushing children into maximizing their engagement with TikTok by any means necessary.
