TikTok Blackout Challenge: Here’s what’s behind the life-threatening trend

The Blackout Challenge on TikTok is a dangerous trend. Users are encouraged to strangle themselves to the point of unconsciousness. This has already ended fatally in some cases.

This is behind the Blackout Challenge on TikTok

Challenges are as much a part of TikTok as dance videos and funny parodies. However, the trend of the Blackout Challenge shows that these can be life-threatening.

• Blackout translates as “losing consciousness”. And that is exactly what the challenge of the same name on the social network TikTok is all about.
• Users film themselves choking themselves to the point of fainting. They then upload the video to the platform hoping for clicks and likes.
• The example of two girls from the USA shows how dangerous the trend is. The 8- and 9-year-olds had strangled themselves with a dog leash and rope and paid for the internet challenge with death.
• The families of the two girls have filed a lawsuit against TikTok, accusing the network of deliberately pushing the challenge and thus encouraging the children to strangle.
• Also in other countries such as Australia and Italy, there have allegedly already been deaths caused by the Blackout Challenge.

This is how dangerous TikTok Challenges are

The Blackout Challenge is not the only questionable trend in the TikTok cosmos.

• Other challenges also get users to put themselves in danger. TikTokers abuse antihistamines as a drug, jump from a moving car into the water or kick others’ legs off while jumping so that they fall.
• Why a relatively large number of people take part in such actions is obvious: Challenges generate clicks. If you match the trend and publish your video under the appropriate hashtag, your clip can go viral and many new likes and followers are added – the goal of many users.
• It should not be forgotten that TikTok primarily appeals to the young target group. The network is permitted for 13 years and older. Young people of that age cannot necessarily assess the dangers that challenges entail and that a strangle can not only trigger a fainting spell but also lead to death.
• Parents should therefore keep an eye on what their children are up to on social networks. This does not mean surveillance, but communication. If parents themselves are up to date on what trends are circulating, they can discuss them with their teenagers and classify them correctly.