A TikTok Challenge Claims a 12-Year-Old’s Life

There is already a move on across the nation to banish TikTok from many places. I’m not on TikTok but I am told it is home to the usual stupid internet antics. Aside from idiotic content, TikTok is also being used by the Chinese government to harvest data from ordinary Americans from all walks of life, which is why it is being given the boot from government- and school-issued devices nationwide. But for one family in Argentina, TikTok helped create a tragedy. A recent trend circulating around the platform is the “Blackout Challenge,” and it can be deadly.

According to the news site El Littoral, 12-year-old Milagros Soto from the Santa Fe town of Capitán Bermúdez was found dead in her room on Friday. No, it was not a suicide attempt, it was from the Blackout Challenge. Milagros was on a video chat with her friends when she attempted the challenge, which involves a person holding their breath with something around their neck until they faint. The incident was even recorded. Her aunt, Laura Luque, posted a photo of Milagros on Facebook with the statement that the girl killed herself as part of a TikTok challenge and that she was making her post to ensure that another child did not suffer a similar fate.

The New York Post notes that the child was found by her father with a rope wrapped around her neck. It was learned that she had completed the challenge twice, but was unable to remove the rope from her neck during the third attempt. The aunt said that Milagros had been bullied at school and had received a link to the challenge through a WhatsApp message following an incident. She believes that Milagros was encouraged to try the challenge.

TikTok has denied responsibility, claiming that the trend predates the platform. But it does encourage people who have been contacted about the “challenge” to flag the content. That’s the equivalent of a shrug of the shoulders. And why should TikTok acknowledge its role? It is the tool of a vile government that has a history of ignoring the value of human life. What’s one 12-year-old?

I know some of you are going to say “What about the parents?” Well, let’s wait a while on that, shall we? The child died on Friday. It is a bit too early for callous retorts. Some of you who will say it is the parent’s fault for not monitoring the child’s online activities will also decry the teaching of CRT and the trans agenda in schools. You would also most certainly call the police if there was a fentanyl dealer in the neighborhood. Even if you kept close tabs on your son or daughter, you would still want something that you saw as a potential threat to be removed, no matter how well you have raised your child. And when the threat comes from a nation like China that has a track record of ignoring and for that matter routinely violating human rights, we know where the problem begins. Perhaps China did not create the Blackout Challenge, but it also doesn’t care. The death of Milagros is part of the cost of doing business for TikTok. Glenn Beck commented the other day that our kids are being confused intentionally and that “social media and the phone that they all look at 24 hours a day is the enemy in their pocket.” So monitor what they do, but also know who bad actors are. The internet is still the digital equivalent of “Wild Kingdom.” The predators come in all shapes and sizes, and your kids are the prey.