Social Media TikTok Carries Deadly Content

In two disturbing wrongful death cases, TikTok played a role that has yet to be questioned. Social media can be a place of fun and laughter, or, as two recent cases demonstrate, a place that promotes deadly challenges that can kill users.

Two families, one of them from Temple, Texas, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the media giant TikTok after two young girls died while attempting the “blackout challenge,” which suggests people choke themselves unitl they pass out. Many of the “challenges” on TikTok end up being harmless, but this one killed two.

One of the girls was 8 years old, the other, 9 years old, definitely too young to lose their lives attempting a deadly challenge that had no business being promoted on social media. 

The outcome in these two cases was self-asphyxiation resulting in death. “There is a darker side to social media that we don’t always see or understand,” said Austin wrongful death attorney Brooks Schuelke.

The Temple, Texas case involved a youngster told to go clean her room while her stepmom had a nap. When the mother went to check on the girl, she found her hanging from her bed with a rope around her neck. The body was still warm as the mother called 911. However, by the time police arrived, the youngster was dead.

The other young female child from Milwaukee, Wisconsin was found by her younger brother hanging by a leash attached to a door in her bedroom. “No family ever wants to lose a child like this,” added Schuelke. 

In response to these deaths, two lawsuits have been filed alleging the social media application has a “defective design and is an addictive product not safe for users.” The families are hoping that TikTok can be held accountable for pushing deadly content.

According to the Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC), TikTok has designed a product that pushes the envelope on content known to be dangerous, and possibly result in the death of users.

“Social media and its use is a tricky area of law. The area of law is new to the extent that the four traditional elements needed to prove negligence or wrongful death must be proven in a new context,” explained Schuelke. Those four elements are:

• Duty – The defendant must have owed the decedent a legal duty of care.
• Breach – a breach of the duty of care must be shown. This is an omission or acts that a reasonable person would not have committed.
• Causation – it must be shown the defendant’s breach caused or significantly contributed to the injury/death.
• Damages – losses suffered by the plaintiff due to the defendant’s wrongful act or neglect.

No one knows how these cases are going to turn out, but both provide the opportunity to seriously consider what is being streamed to the public, including children. Someone, somewhere, needs to understand that they have a social responsibility to others not to purvey questionable and potentially deadly content.