Let’s explain TikTok choking challenge, it’s a life-threatening trend, and that is why we decided to explain its dangers in today’s article. The latest “choking challenge” is similar to playing with fire, even though TikTok has something to offer all of its users in the form of challenges, trends, or viral hacks.
Rarely, but occasionally, a challenge on social media surfaces that intentionally puts someone’s life in peril while also ignoring all common sense.
What is the TikTok choking challenge?
TikTok and its users’ undeniable propensity for virality cause them to engage in dangerous antics under the guise of “challenges.” There have been fatal consequences, with accounts of teenage users being admitted to hospitals or even passing away as a result of their behavior.
Since the TikTok choking challenge first became popular on the platform in 2021, at least five people have already died as a result of it.
Participants are instructed to choke themselves and cut off their air supply until they pass out in this challenge. In another form, participants hold their breath. Both behaviors serve to announce a purportedly fleeting “high” or euphoric condition.
The “blackout challenge,” “TikTok choking challenge,” “fainting game,” or “passout challenge,” as it is commonly known, did not start on TikTok. In actuality, it has existed offline for a lot longer. We’ve discussed the negative effects of Tiktok on youth over Archie Battersbee blackout challenge example recently.
According to a CDC analysis from February 2008, between 1995 and 2008, this problem caused 82 “youth” deaths across 31 US states.
A press release about the report read:
“Three or fewer choking game–related deaths per year were reported in the news media from 1995 to 2004. However, 22 deaths occurred in 2005, and 35 in 2006. Nine deaths occurred in the first 10 months of 2007; the explanation for this decrease is unclear. The researchers said the study probably underestimates the number of deaths.”
In 2021, this frightening trend reappeared on the well-liked short-video platform, greatly expanding its reach. At least five incidents of minors between the ages of 10 and 13 dying as a result of their unsupervised attempts at the practice have been reported.
TikTok’s data protection watchdogs have barred users under the age of 13 from the app after an Italian 10-year-old girl unintentionally choked herself while attempting the challenge.
The family of 12-year-old Joshua Haileyesus, who also lost his life to this horrific TikTok challenge, sent a warning to other parents. They said that:
“We are also concerned for other families who like ourselves, may not be aware of the existence of the Blackout Challenge and others like it. We urge the community to spend awareness about Joshua and the real risks involved in not having knowledge of what kinds of activities children are involved in.”
Clarie McCarthy, a Harvard physician, provided some insight into why teenagers are so irrationally drawn to such risky endeavors. It goes beyond the excitement of it and peer pressure.
She makes reference to how the frontal lobes of children’s brains, which regulate decision-making, insight, and risk-taking, are underdeveloped. This causes hasty decisions to be made without giving their effects a second thought.
“At TikTok, we have no higher priority than protecting the safety of our community, and content that promotes or glorifies dangerous behavior is strictly prohibited and promptly removed to prevent it from becoming a trend on the platform. We also block related hashtags and searches to discourage people from participating in or sharing potentially dangerous content,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement.
The platform’s strategy, however, leaves much to be desired considering that the TikTok choking challenge is still around today.
