A 14-year-old boy, Leon Brown, was found unresponsive at home in Cumbernauld, Scotland after reportedly attempting a dangerous TikTok choking challenge.
Gatekeepers News reports that the boy’s mother revealed that her son died in front of his friends while attempting a deadly TikTok trend as Archie Battersbee.
The grieving mother, Lauryn Keating, issued a warning to fellow parents after her son’s friend revealed he had wanted to replicate the choking game after seeing it on the video-sharing app.
She said Leon’s friends were watching him attempt the challenge via Facetime when tragedy struck and the schoolboy lost his life.
“One of Leon’s friends told me he had been doing the challenge on Facetime with them after seeing it on TikTok,” the 30-year-old mother told the Daily Record.
“Him and his friends probably thought it was a laugh and a joke. But Leon didn’t come back around. It went horribly wrong.
“I had heard of this challenge, because of what happened to Archie. But you don’t expect your own child to do it.
“Please warn them, these online challenges aren’t worth their lives. They aren’t worth ‘likes’ or whatever they’re doing it for.”
Keating later said she was shocked when she searched TikTok and found a trove of videos promoting similar choking games.
She said: “I went on TikTok and wrote out words similar to blackout challenge. The amount of video results that came up on it is ridiculous.”
In reaction, the Chinese-run video sharing app said it has removed videos of the ‘Blackout Challenge’ from its platform and has put measures in place to prevent users from sharing or searching the trend.
A TikTok spokesperson said: “Our deepest sympathies go out to Leon Brown’s family during this incredibly difficult time.
“The safety of our community is our priority and we take any claim about a dangerous challenge very seriously.
“Content of this nature is prohibited on our platform and would be removed if found.”
Leon’s death comes just weeks after Archie Battersbee’s life support was removed following a protracted legal battle after the youngster had also reportedly attempted the ‘Blackout Challenge’.
The trend, which has swept across social media and encourages users to asphyxiate themselves, pass out and regain consciousness on camera, has been linked to the deaths of dozens of children in the United States.
Archie was found unresponsive at his home in Southend, Essex on April 7 and spent months clinging to life in an induced coma.
His mother, Hollie Dance, has publicly shared her belief that Archie’s tragic case began after the schoolboy took part in an online ‘Blackout Challenge’.
She demanded household brands like TikTok and Facebook take action on dangerous challenges like the one she says killed her son – where participants strangle themselves with ligatures until they faint.
She said that ‘sick people’ are ‘grooming our children to do these challenges’ in an interview with the Mirror.
“And it’s disgusting. The people – they’re often adults, not children – who are demonstrating these challenges are sick,” she said.
