TikTok ‘Blackout Challenge’ Leads To Death Of 10-Year-Old Girl In Italy

• In Italy, a 10-year-old girl recently died after playing the “blackout challenge” on TikTok.
• The choking game led to her death after her brain “suffered from lack of oxygen,” authorities said.
• The child was found unconscious in the bathroom with her mobile phone.

Authorities in Italy have launched an investigation after a young girl accidentally died while allegedly playing a dangerous TikTok game called “blackout challenge” where participants try to choke themselves until they pass out for a few seconds. According to reports, the family found the child unconscious in the bathroom with her mobile phone.

The girl, 10, was immediately rushed to the Di Cristina hospital Palermo but unfortunately, it was too late. Pediatric intensive care head Gaetana Lazzaro said that her brain “suffered too long from lack of oxygen… so after a few hours of an irreversible coma we came to the conclusion of a cerebral death.”

In a media interview, the child’s father said:

“We didn’t know anything. We didn’t know she was participating in this game. We knew that (our daughter) went on TikTok for dances, to look at videos. How could I imagine this atrocity?”

Meanwhile, a TikTok representative said that they are cooperating with authorities in identifying which content the girl has seen and participated in.

“The safety of the TikTok community is our absolute priority, for this motive we do not allow any content that encourages, promotes or glorifies behaviour that could be dangerous,” added the spokesperson.

The young girl was from Palermo, Sicily in southern Italy.

Last December, the data protection agency of Italy has also filed a case against the popular app for its “lack of attention to the protection of minors,” pointing out that young children can easily sign up with them.

“Social networks can’t become a jungle where anything is allowed,” remarked Licia Ronzulli, president of parliamentary commission on child protection.