Italy opens probe after 10-year-old girl dies in TikTok 'choking game'
TikTok
Prosecutors in Italy are probing the death of 10-year-old girl who allegedly took part in Tiktok 'blackout challenge'. Italy has temporarily blocked access to TikTok to those whose age could not be proven definitively. As per TikTok's terms and conditions, its users must be at least 13-years-old.
The girl was found by her five-year-old sister in the family's bathroom with her cellphone. She was taken to hospital but she passed away.
TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, said Friday it had not managed to identify any content on its site that could have encouraged the girl to participate in any such challenge, but was helping the authorities in the probe over possible "incitement to suicide".
"The safety of the TikTok community is our absolute priority, for this motive we do not allow any content that encourages, promotes or glorifies behaviour that could be dangerous," a TikTok spokesman said.
The Italian Data Protection Authority said in a statement later Friday that it would "block the (Chinese) social media network" with immediate effect until February 15, by which date the network will have to meet the regulator's demands.
Medical experts have warned about the danger of the challenge being taken up by some young people, who refer to it as "scarfing" or "the choking game" in which restricted oxygen to the brain results in a high.
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The deceased girl's parents told media that her sister told them that she "was playing the blackout game"
"We didn't know anything," the girl's father told the paper.
"We didn't know she was participating in this game. We knew that (our daughter) went on TikTok for dances, to look at videos. How could I imagine this atrocity?" he said.
Italy's data protection agency filed a lawsuit against TikTok in December, alleging a "lack of attention to the protection of minors" and criticising the ease with which very young children could sign up to the video app.
(With AFP inputs)