Dec 01, 2022 20:00:00

More than 15 children under the age of 12 have died in the past year and a half due to the TikTok 'fainting challenge' craze. Why can't they exclude users under the age of 13?

TikTok is very popular among the younger generation, and many users post various videos on the app. However, it has become a problem that extremely dangerous challenge videos such as the '

Skull Crushing Challenge ' in which a defenseless person is slammed headfirst into the ground become popular. Bloomberg, an overseas media outlet, reports that at least 15 children under the age of 12 have died in the past 18 months after attempting the 'Blackout Challenge,' a popular TikTok challenge in which people intentionally suffocate themselves and lose consciousness.

'Blackout Challenge' on TikTok Is Luring Young Kids to Death - Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-11-30/is-tiktok-responsible-if-kids-die-doing-dangerous-viral-challenges

A wide variety of 'challenges' periodically go viral on TikTok, with many users posting videos of themselves trying them out. Some of the challenges are bizarre but harmless, like the ' pee pants challenge ,' in which users pee in their pants, or the 'feed a cat with a raw egg' challenge , while others are extremely dangerous, like the 'skull shattering challenge.'

The trend for such challenges follows on from Musical.ly , a lip-syncing app that TikTok's owner ByteDance acquired and integrated into the platform in 2018. For years, Musical.ly had been accepting kids under the age of 13 who had been kicked out of competing platforms, and as of 2016 many of its top users were underage children.

Alex Zhu, co-founder of Musical.ly, said at a public conference in 2016 that what sets Musical.ly apart from other entertainment apps is the trend of promoting various 'challenges' and encouraging users to take them on. This trend was carried over to TikTok, which integrated Musical.ly, and during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, TikTok challenges resonated with many young people and became a global trend.

Eventually, the challenges on TikTok became more dangerous, such as climbing on stacked milk crates, gulping down the anti-allergy drug Benadryl , and destroying school equipment , and even deadly challenges such as the skull-shattering challenge and the fainting challenge appeared. The fainting challenge is a challenge in which participants intentionally deprive their brains of oxygen by hanging or other methods to experience a feeling of euphoria, and a Bloomberg survey found that at least 15 children under the age of 13 have died in accidents during the fainting challenge in the past 18 months.

'Choking games' similar to the fainting challenge have long been played among young people, and a 2008

report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that 82 young people aged 6 to 19 died from choking games between 1995 and 2007. However, according to a survey by Erik's Cause , a non-profit organization founded by the bereaved families of choking games, at least 33 children under the age of 13 have died from choking games since 2018, and founder Judy Rogg warns that 'choking games are becoming more popular on social media.'

TikTok's moderation team is also cracking down on dangerous challenges, but users are avoiding direct words like 'blackout challenge' and 'choking game,' and are using words that are harder to detect, such as 'flatliner' and 'space monkey.' In addition, it seems that users are also using a method of deliberately misspelling words to avoid detection.

Dangerous challenges like the fainting challenge are especially dangerous for children who cannot fully understand the risks and seriousness of the consequences. TikTok prohibits use by people under the age of 13, but in reality, many users under the age of 13 are using TikTok by lying about their age, and moderation is not keeping up. A survey conducted in the UK found that about half of children aged 8 to 11 watch TikTok every day.

In January 2021, 10-year-old Antonella Sicomero hanged herself with the belt of her bathrobe in Sicily, Italy, and in February, 10-year-old Arriani Arroyo hanged herself in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. Both were heavy TikTok users, and their families claim that they died in an accident while trying a 'game' that was popular on TikTok, based on the testimony of their siblings and friends. Since then, young children have hanged themselves to death around the world, and their families suspect that TikTok challenges are involved.

Most police investigating these cases have not publicly linked TikTok to the deaths. However, police in Clarksville, Tennessee, USA, who investigated the case of Lalani Walton, who died at age 8 in July 2021, found through a mobile phone analysis that she had been watching 'fainting challenge' videos on TikTok for several hours the day before her death.

In the United States, several lawsuits have been filed against TikTok by the families of the deceased, but TikTok has not admitted that the content it recommended caused the accident. In addition, it has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuits, arguing that platform services are protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act , which does not hold platform services liable for information transmitted by third parties.

In recent years, there has been a growing movement for platforms such as TikTok to not only censor content but also to introduce protection measures that do not allow users under the age of 13 in the first place. The California Age Appropriate Design Code Act (AB-2273), passed in August 2022 in California, requires strict child protection measures for apps and websites likely to be accessed by children under the age of 18.

This is expected to lead to the introduction of age verification systems using facial photos, making it a difficult task for platforms to balance privacy with child protection.

A bill requiring a large number of apps and websites to protect children has been passed, accelerating the risk of 'net user face scanning' - GIGAZINE

TikTok reportedly met with companies such as Yoti and Hive , which provide software to estimate age from faces, in 2021, but ultimately did not introduce these software. An anonymous source told Bloomberg that TikTok, which is under scrutiny from politicians for suspected ties to the Chinese government, feared that introducing an age verification system using facial photos would expose it to further investigation.

When Bloomberg sent Hive a video of Arriani, who died in Milwaukee, and asked the software to estimate her age, it was able to accurately guess her age at 10 years old in just three seconds. Hive CEO Kevin Guo said, 'The technology to estimate children's ages is definitely here,' and 'the platforms that are refusing to adopt it probably don't want to know the extent of the problem.'