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TikTok sued by parents of UK teens after alleged challenge deaths

The US-based Social Media Victims Law Center filed the wrongful death lawsuit on Thursday.

The lawsuit claims Isaac Kenevan, Archie Battersbee, Julian "Jools" Sweeney and Maia Walsh died while attempting the so-called "blackout challenge". It claims the deaths were "the foreseeable result of ByteDance's engineered addiction-by-design and programming decisions", which were "aimed at pushing children into maximizing their engagement with TikTok by any means necessary". Ellen Roome, who believes her 14-year-old son Jools died after participating in an online challenge, has sought to obtain data from TikTok that could provide clarity around his death.

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