A distraught mother has described how her son died while trying a lethal TikTok choking challenge in front of his buddies.
In Scotland’s Cumbernauld, 14-year-old Leon Brown was discovered unconscious in his bedroom after allegedly trying the same risky TikTok trend as Archie Battersbee.
After hearing from her son’s buddy that he had wanted to recreate the choking game after watching it on the video-sharing app, his distraught mother, Lauryn Keating, issued a warning to other parents.
She alleges that when tragedy happened and the child lost his life, his friends were watching him try the task on Facetime.
The 30-year-old informed the Daily Record that he had been participating in the challenge on Facetime with them after watching it on TikTok, according to one of Leon’s pals.
He and his pals presumably believed it to be a joke and a laugh. Leon, though, never turned around. It miserably went wrong.
Because of what happened to Archie, I was aware of this problem. You don’t, nevertheless, anticipate your own youngster to.
Please tell them that their lives are not worth risking on these internet challenges. They aren’t worth the “likes” or whatever the purpose of their actions is.
Last week, Leon’s friends and family came together to release balloons in his honour. They are hoping that Celtic supporters would give the young man a standing ovation at their next home game.
After the schoolboy’s passing, his buddies placed the club’s famous uniform hung on a railing in their neighbourhood park.
Later, Ms. Keating said that she was astounded to discover a wealth of videos marketing activities that include choking on TikTok.
I went on TikTok and put down phrases similar to the blackout challenge, the woman claimed. The number of video results that appeared on it is absurd.
The Chinese-owned video-sharing app claims to have taken down recordings of the “Blackout Challenge” from its site and to have put safeguards in place to stop users from sharing or looking up the trend.
A representative for TikTok expressed their sincere condolences to Leon Brown’s family at this very trying time.
Our first focus is the safety of our community, and we take any claims of a hazardous challenge extremely seriously.
This kind of material is not allowed on our site and will be taken down if discovered.
Leon’s death occurs just a few weeks after Archie Battersbee’s life support was turned off after a long court dispute because the kid purportedly tried the “Blackout Challenge” as well.
A number of youngsters in the United States have died as a result of the social media craze, which encourages users to suffocate themselves, pass out, then recover consciousness on video.
Police are reportedly looking into whether he participated in the hazardous trend that is said to have killed more than 80 kids since it initially went viral online more than ten years ago.
The families of two young girls in the U.S. filed a lawsuit against TikTok in July, blaming the hosting service’s ‘dangerous’ algorithms for their children’s demise.
Tragic Archie spent months fighting for his life in an artificially induced coma after being discovered unconscious at his Southend, Essex, home on April 7.
His mother, Hollie Dance, has openly expressed her opinion that the schoolboy’s terrible situation started as a result of his participation in an online “Blackout Challenge.”
She urged well-known companies to intervene against risky challenges like the one she claims killed her son, in which players strangle themselves with ligatures until they pass out, including TikTok and Facebook.
In an interview with the Mirror, she said that “sick individuals” “groom our children to perform these tasks.”
“And it’s revolting.” The persons exhibiting these challenges—who are often adults rather than children—are unwell, she said.
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