Thanks, although I was able to infer some of the significance from the name, I was confused about how kids were actually dying because something like this has been around for a long time. At least 30 years ago kids this age were making themselves blackout by holding their hands tightly against their necks. Even then, before the age of always on internet, most of the other kids rightly called those kids out as idiots. Adding mechanical devices is just next level evil? Next Level Stupid? I don’t know. I guess that’s what the lawsuit is trying to determine. I can guarantee that it will be used to further erode our privacy rights online as more and more kinds sites are forced to verify their users with government issued identification.
Comment on Parents sue TikTok over child deaths allegedly caused by ‘blackout challenge’
TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
For anybody like me who doesn’t know what the blackout challenge is:
The blackout challenge is a social media dare that calls on users to strangle themselves with a belt, purse strings, ropes, and similar items until they pass out, all while uploading the resulting videos to TikTok. However, the challenge did not start on TikTok, nor is it exclusive to the platform.
What the fuck
Wolf314159@startrek.website 2 weeks ago
Fiivemacs@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Yeah, it’s been going for decades but parents blame the website they let their kids sit on for hours instead of actually parenting and spending time with their kids.
paraphrand@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Where have kids been posting videos for decades?
liyunxiao@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
If you think harmful memes didn’t spread before the internet, then you really have no understanding of human behavior.
The blackout challenge or variants have been around since at least the 1970s in the US.
paraphrand@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I never said such a thing.
This is about broadcasting. Not word of mouth. If you can point to countless examples of broadcasting, please educate me.