A few days ago, the death of Archie Battersbee, the 12-year-old British boy who was left in a coma for five months after being part of a challenge that became popular on TikTok, was announced.
The young man ended up unconscious when he tried to imitate the blackout challenge. His mother found him unconscious and rushed him to the hospital to receive the necessary medical care; However, after many efforts the little boy suffered brain death and although his family faced a legal disagreement with the doctors, finally and after five months in a coma, he was disconnected from life support last Saturday.
The blackout challenge It consists of recording yourself while holding your breath until you pass out and most of the videos of users who participated in this challenge were eliminated. However, they became so viral that young people and children did it to obtain likes and popularity.
Unfortunately Archie was not the only victim, because so far it is known that there are eight deaths from this practice in networks, between the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy and Australia.
The emergence of this challenge was in 2008 and it became more popular in 2021, when it began to spread on platforms like TikTok. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the year it emerged, at least 82 young people died and the average age of the victims was 13, according to the report.
The platform is currently facing a strong demand for the death of eight children who tried to carry out the trend.
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As a result of the knowledge of the deaths, parents have been alerted to pay attention to their children and not be part of this type of content, which is worth mentioning, the video clip social network requests the age of majority to have an account; however, the child and youth audience is growing, that is why this recommendation has been made.