A mother who said her son died after attempting a viral challenge has issued a warning to parents and teenagers about the danger of the Tik Tok trend.
Lauryn Keating said she found her 14-year-old son Leon Brown unresponsive in his bedroom at their home in Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire on August 25.
It was later learned he had tried the “blackout challenge”, a viral trend believed to have caused the brain injury that killed 12-year-old Archie Battersbee last month.
In the latest iteration of a dangerous stunt, children are filmed holding their breath until they pass out from lack of oxygen before sharing the videos on social media.
It has so far been blamed for several deaths and some parents have sued the video-sharing app TikTok over claims that the platform’s algorithm promotes videos of other people doing the “blackout challenge”.
After hearing that Leon had died because he accepted the challenge, Ms Keating wrote a Facebook post warning that any child who took part in the trend was risking unintentional suicide.
She said: “I need every teenager and every parent to see this and understand the dangers of these Tiktok challenges.
“A challenge is not worth your life, a few likes on social networks are not worth your life.
“My son (I’m sure all his friends will agree) was the class clown, he was happy, he was kind, he loved to make everyone laugh, but most importantly he didn’t want to die.
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“No parent should have to see what I’ve seen, no parent should have to go through what I am because of some stupid trend. Even if it saves a child’s life, it’s worth sharing.” .
Mrs Keating told Scotland’sDaily Record that one of her son’s friends said he saw Leon take on the challenge on Facetime.
She told the paper: “One of Leon’s friends told me he had been doing the challenge on Facetime with them after seeing him on TikTok.
“My Leon thought he’d be the one to try it first. He and his friends probably thought it was a laugh and a joke.
“One of the kids I was on Facetime with told me what he had done. He said they thought they were going to wake up. But Leon didn’t come back. It’s gone terribly wrong.”
He added: “I went on TikTok and typed words similar to the blackout challenge. The amount of video results that came up is ridiculous.”
Archie Battersbee spent months on life support before a judge ruled doctors could let him die
(AP)
Leon’s death came just weeks after Archie Battersbee was taken off life support on August 6.
The 12-year-old died after months of legal battles that culminated in a judge ruling that doctors could legally end the boy’s life support despite his family’s objections.
Archie’s mother Hollie Dance blamed the ‘blackout challenge’ for the brain damage that led to his death and hit out at social media companies for not doing enough to deter dangerous content from their platforms.
TikTok was sued in May by the family of Nylah Anderson, a 10-year-old girl who died in the United States last December after attempting the challenge.
The parents of Lalani Erika Renee Walton, eight, and Arriani Jaileen Arroyo, nine, followed up with a lawsuit in July after their daughters allegedly died after attempting the challenge.