TikTok sued by dad and mom of UK teenagers after alleged problem deaths | EUROtoday

TikTok has been sued by the dad and mom of 4 British youngsters believed to have died after collaborating in viral traits that circulated on the video-sharing platform in 2022.

The lawsuit claims Isaac Kenevan, Archie Battersbee, Julian “Jools” Sweeney and Maia Walsh died whereas trying the so-called “blackout challenge”.

The US-based Social Media Victims Law Center filed the wrongful demise lawsuit in opposition to TikTok and its mother or father firm ByteDance on behalf of the kids’s dad and mom on Thursday.

The BBC has requested TikTok for remark.

The criticism was filed within the Superior Court of the State of Delaware on behalf of Archie’s mom Hollie Dance, Isaac’s mum Lisa Kenevan, Jools’ mom Ellen Roome and Maia’s dad Liam Walsh.

It claims the deaths had been “the foreseeable result of ByteDance’s engineered addiction-by-design and programming decisions”, which had been “aimed at pushing children into maximizing their engagement with TikTok by any means necessary”.

And it accuses ByteDance of getting “created harmful dependencies in each child” by way of its design and “flooded them with a seemingly endless stream of harms”.

“These were not harms the children searched for or wanted to see when their use of TikTok began,” it claims.

The households’ lawsuit comes as query marks hold over the way forward for TikTok within the US.

President Donald Trump signed an govt order in January to increase the deadline for the app to be banned within the nation except bought to a different agency.

A coroner concluded in January 2024 that Hollie Dance’s son Archie died aged 12 after a “prank or experiment” went fallacious at their house in Southend-on-Sea in April 2022.

Ms Dance, together with Lisa Kenevan, mom of 13-year-old Isaac, has tried to lift consciousness about doubtlessly harmful social media traits within the wake of their childrens’ deaths.

Ellen Roome, who believes her 14-year-old son Jools died after collaborating in an internet problem, has sought to acquire knowledge from TikTok that might present readability round his demise.

She has been campaigning for “Jools’ Law”, which might enable dad and mom to entry the social media accounts of their kids in the event that they die.

“It’s my one goal to try and make something positive out of the loss of Jools, not just me but for the families who have already lost children and families going forward,” she advised the BBC in January.