Italian authorities have recently ordered TikTok to permanently block all accounts where a user's age could not properly be verified after just recently, a 10-year old girl had died on Thursday for participating in something called the "blackout challenge." What is the Blackout TikTok challenge and why is it so dangerous?
10 year-old girl allegedly died due to TikTok blackout challenge
According to the report of the Italian news agency ANSA, the cause of death for the unidentified girl was asphyxiation at a particular hospital in Palermo, the Sicilian city. Investigators then said that the girl had attempted to try out the "blackout challenge" on TikTok where certain kids would try to temporarily suffocate themselves in order to get the feeling of euphoria.
The story by NYDailyNews notes that a number of people on TikTok took this challenge and even the girl's parents stated that she would have easily noticed it there according to Reuters. Police then stated that she was recording herself inside the bathroom while she had a belt tied around her neck.
What is the TikTok blackout challenge?
Technically, those children that are under the age of 13 are officially not allowed to use TikTok and are redirected to another safer platform called the TikTok For Young Users. TikTok, however, doesn't have a totally effective age-verification process so the girl might just have easily faked her birthday in order to use the app.
According to the report of the Associated Press, in response to this incident, the authorities have ordered the company to block all of the accounts that could not verify the user age. The ban will officially last until at least the 15th of February when it will then be reevaluated.
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TikTok blackout challenge and the Pass Out Challenge
This dangerous TikTok challenge is similar to the TikTok Pass Out challenge that started getting traction among users. The TikTok Blackout Challenge is said to encourage asphyxiation among users until they pass out. The main idea is that they suddenly wake up a few moments later. However, this is an extremely dangerous challenge. An article by Distractify notes that if someone is found attempting this challenge, they should be reported directly.
Back in February of 2020, Kids were all trying out the Pass Out Challenge which was said to be essentially the same thing as the Blackout Challenge on TikTok. In this challenge, teens would move their heads from side to side going as fast as they could just until the movement would cause them to pass out. They would then suddenly wake up soon while after and then record the results to TikTok.
This is one of many potentially dangerous TikTok challenges so it is very important. A number of people have even called the app trash on Twitter noted to be harmful to the younger users of this particular application. With the increase of TikTok users over the years, it is important that each one of them is verified.
Related Article: 'What's The Worst Thing That Happened to You at School? Challenge Trends on TikTok
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Urian Buenconsejo
