London

Amidst TikTok facing wrongful death lawsuits after two California girls fatally hung themselves after watching “blackout challenge” videos on the platform, another case of the deadly online trend has emerged from Scotland where a 14-year-old boy lost his life.

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Leon Brown, 14, was found unresponsive in his room last on August 25 by her mother Lauryn Keating, who issued a warning to other families on Thursday about the dreaded game.

She later learned that her son lost his life while trying the “blackout challenge”, a viral trend that is believed to have caused the brain injury which led to the death of 12-year-old Archie Battersbee last month.

Under this challenge, kids film themselves holding their breath until they fall unconscious due to lack of oxygen before sharing the videos on social media.

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TikTok has been facing the ire following several deaths, with some parents even suing the video-sharing app over claims that the platform’s algorithm promotes “blackout challenge” videos.

After learning that her son had died due to the dreaded challenge, Keating told Scotland’s Daily Record that one of her son’s friends informed her of Leon taking the challenge on Facetime.

“One of Leon’s friends told me he had been doing the challenge on Facetime with them after seeing it on TikTok,” she told the paper.

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“My Leon thought he would be the one to try it first. Him and his friends probably thought it was a laugh and a joke. I went on TikTok and wrote out words similar to blackout challenge. The amount of video results that came up on it is ridiculous,” she added.

Leon’s death came just weeks after Archie Battersbee was taken off life support on August 16. The 12-year-old was also a victim of the “blackout challenge”.

Responding to the deaths, TikTok recently urged users to flag the challenge by clicking the symbol that says “Report.”

However, the app is reportedly still loaded with footage depicting the potentially fatal challenge, according to the New York Post.

(With inputs from agencies)

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