{"id":1561088,"date":"2022-07-19T12:04:14","date_gmt":"2022-07-19T16:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1561088"},"modified":"2022-07-19T12:04:21","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T16:04:21","slug":"parents-sue-tiktok-for-damages-after-daughters-allegedly-die-doing-challenge-on-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/parents-sue-tiktok-for-damages-after-daughters-allegedly-die-doing-challenge-on-app\/","title":{"rendered":"Parents Sue TikTok For Damages After Daughters Allegedly Die Doing Challenge On App"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fparents-sue-tiktok-for-damages-after-daughters-allegedly-die-doing-challenge-on-app%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1561088&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"p1\">Parents are <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/tech-policy\/2022\/07\/parents-sue-tiktok-after-7-kids-die-from-profitable-blackout-challenge-videos\/?amp=1\">suing<\/a> social media platform TikTok claiming that one of the challenges on the app led to the death of their children. The lawsuit pits parent responsibility against what some allege is the platform\u2019s deliberate targeting of children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In a disturbing story, two sets of parents have filed a lawsuit against TikTok after their daughters \u2014 who were ages 8 and 9 \u2014 died after allegedly trying to perform what\u2019s called the Blackout Challenge, where people are told to share videos essentially strangling themselves until they lose consciousness.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/socialmediavictims.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Complaint_File-TikTok-Smith-Arroyo-7_1_22.pdf\">lawsuit<\/a> accuses TikTok of enticing young users to become addicted to its platform and then promotes content that can convince them to harm themselves. The parents allege that TikTok doesn\u2019t provide adequate warnings to deter young users or inform their parents about the addictive nature of the app or these potentially deadly challenges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The parents say TikTok promotes harmful content, and the app is designed to be addictive. They want the company to pay damages related to the deaths of their children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">Matthew Bergman, a lawyer representing the parents and founder of the Social Media Victims Law Center, told Morning Wire, \u201cthere are over 12 children in the United States that we know of who have died from the TikTok Blackout Challenge [and] 40 children in the Pacific region who have died of it as well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">\u201cThe goal of this lawsuit is to hold this company accountable for designing a product with an algorithm that directs young children to content that causes them to engage in this very dangerous and in many cases, fatal activity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">He noted that TikTok had created documents that have been leaked showing how their goal is, \u201cfirst and foremost, engaging young users with their product for as long and as intensely as they possibly can. And they\u2019ve designed algorithms, expressly designed one to addict kids into understanding the nature of human psychology.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">A spokesperson for TikTok <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/07\/06\/technology\/tiktok-blackout-challenge-deaths.html\">told<\/a> The New York Times that the company wouldn\u2019t be providing comment on continuing litigation. However, the rep did reference a statement from December in which the company responded to a People magazine report about another child who allegedly died while doing the same challenge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The statement <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/human-interest\/10-year-old-girl-dies-trying-blackout-challenge-from-tiktok\/\">said<\/a>, \u201cThis disturbing \u2018challenge,\u2019 which people seem to learn about from sources other than TikTok, long predates our platform and has never been a TikTok trend,\u201d and included a link to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/mmwr\/preview\/mmwrhtml\/mm5706a1.htm\">CDC report<\/a> about children and teens dying from a \u201cchoking game\u201d in the late 90s and early 2000s. The statement also said, \u201cWe remain vigilant in our commitment to user safety and would immediately remove related content if found. Our deepest sympathies go out to the family for their tragic loss.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The claim that TikTok is deliberately targeting kids has been made before. Earlier this year, several bipartisan attorneys general from around the nation <a href=\"https:\/\/oag.ca.gov\/news\/press-releases\/attorney-general-bonta-announces-nationwide-investigation-tiktok\">started<\/a> an investigation into TikTok over its promotion to kids. They were specifically trying to determine if TikTok was breaking state consumer protection laws and placing children in harm\u2019s way. This year, the app is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/parents-of-two-children-sue-tiktok-after-alleging-they-died-from-doing-blackout-challenge-11657212025?mod=lead_feature_below_a_pos1\">expected<\/a> to make $12 billion on advertising due to its popularity among young people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">It also recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/pop-culture\/viral\/tiktok-algorithm-content-maturity-ratings-rcna37878\">announced<\/a> it would create a rating system to help stop minors from viewing inappropriate videos. It will also impact what is shown on the \u201cFor You\u201d pages, and users will have the option to adjust their \u201cFor You\u201d pages, which is something the lawsuit heavily discusses \u2014 that these \u201cFor You\u201d pages can direct kids to harmful content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Parents are suing social media platform TikTok claiming that one of the challenges on the app led to the death of their children. The lawsuit pits parent responsibility against what some allege is the platform\u2019s deliberate targeting of children. In a disturbing story, two sets of parents have filed a lawsuit against TikTok after their &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1574487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1561088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1561088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1574487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1561088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1561088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1561088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}