If you can't look after your kids, just sue someone

This garbage in the Guardian is from America, but unfortunately the UK and US are not too dissimilar when it comes to stupid people, so expect to see it in English courts soon, if not already here

Families sue TikTok after girls died while trying ‘blackout challenge’

I would normally place the most blame on the idiots who tried this. Teenagers are stupid, but old enough to know better, etc. Unfortunately, the girls in question were eight and seven, respectively. They were children. And children rely on parents to look after them and stop them from doing stupid things that result in injury or loss of life

Like choking yourself to death for a  few likes on social media

I had no idea how old you had to be to use Tik Tok, as I've never been on it, but a quick Google search tells me you have to be at least 13, unless you get parental consent

Lalani had received a phone for her eighth birthday in April 2021 and “quickly became addicted to watching TikTok videos”, the complaint said. She often posted videos of herself singing and dancing, in hopes of becoming “TikTok famous”.

In July 2021, her family began noticing bruising on Lalani’s neck, which she explained away as an accident. Unbeknownst to them, she had begun participating in the blackout challenge, which had first showed up on her feed weeks before.

On the day of her death, Lalani had spent hours on a family road trip watching videos, including posts of the challenge.

To me, that just sounds like the parents (Plural?) just gave the kid a phone in the hopes that it would keep her quiet, because they could not be bothered with her

It's not a good idea for an eight year old to be posting nauseating videos of themselves on Tik Tok in the hope of achieving some shallow fame and it's not right for a child to be spending hours on social media, particularly when on a 'family' trip

The parents should have seen this coming and there is nobody else to blame

“Lalani was eight years old at the time and did not appreciate or understand the dangerous nature of what TikTok was encouraging her to do.”

That's what parents are for and hers failed 

The other victim named in the suit, nine-year-old Arriani Jaileen Arroyo of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, received a phone when she was seven years old and used TikTok multiple times a day, according to the complaint. She “gradually became obsessive” about posting dance videos on TikTok and became “addicted” to the app.

Same story

Giving birth to a child probably requires the most common sense, responsibility and knowledge of anything you do in life, but it's probably the only thing in life you can do, that doesn't require a permit

No I'm not saying we should make people get a permit, but we definitely need to remove this idea that the state will take responsibility for your kids and if they do something stupid because of your neglect, the courts will award you a lot of money

Represented by the Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC), a legal resource for parents of children harmed by social media addiction and abuse, they allege the platform’s “dangerous algorithm intentionally and repeatedly” pushed videos of the challenge into the children’s feeds, incentivizing them to participate in the challenge that ultimately took their lives.

The SMVLC seems exactly the kind of thing to encourage this parental neglect. Give your kids over to social media, and if anything goes wrong, they will ensure it makes you rich

 

Judging by what they're pushing in this court case though, they might not be around for much longer. If Tik Tok has a legal department, hopefully they are now making a case for liable and will make mincemeat of this group

“TikTok needs to be held accountable for pushing deadly content to these two young girls,” said Matthew P Bergman, founding attorney of SMVLC. “TikTok has invested billions of dollars to intentionally design products that push dangerous content that it knows is dangerous and can result in the deaths of its users.”

“TikTok unquestionably knew that the deadly Blackout Challenge was spreading through their app and that their algorithm was specifically feeding the Blackout Challenge to children, including those who have died,”

The lawsuit lists a number of complaints against TikTok, including that its algorithm promotes harmful content, allows underage users on the app, and it fails to warn users or their legal guardians of the app’s addictive nature.

 “TikTok prioritized greater corporate profits over the health and safety of its users and, specifically, over the health and safety of vulnerable children TikTok knew or should have known were actively using its social media product,” they said.

Strong words. Could be a problem though, if they're not backed up by solid proof

The Walton and Arroyo families [...] have requested a jury trial...

Hopefully the jury will have more common sense than the parents