Samantha Kamman – July 21, 2022
A Christian organization commented on the potential harms of young children using social media without proper supervision amid reports that two sets of parents are suing TikTok over the belief the company could have done more to prevent their daughters’ deaths via an online challenge.
The Social Media Victims Law Center filed a civil lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance Ltd., in a Los Angeles County court on behalf of the families of Lalani Erika Walton and Arriani Jaileen Arroyo, two children who died while attempting the viral TikTok challenge known as the “blackout challenge.”
Participants in the challenge share videos depicting self-strangulation until they lose consciousness. Walton and Arriani, ages eight and nine, respectively, died after participating in the challenge.
The parents claim that their children became addicted to TikTok and that the platform promoted content that influenced the kids to harm themselves.
Paul Asay, senior associate editor of the Christian organization Focus on the Family’s PluggedIn.com, which helps parents navigate popular entertainment, weighed in on the controversy, stressing that social media comes with a “built-in irony.”
Asay told The Christian Post that these applications are intended to strengthen friendships but are also a “business.” He said the purpose of the business is to “keep their users as involved and engaged as much as they possibly can.”
He stated that this can be a problem for kids and teens using social media applications. The associate editor argued that children typically don’t have the ability to make “wise, healthy decisions for themselves.”
“Social media is designed to be addictive, in a way — designed to keep its users engaged with it as long as possible,” Asay wrote. “And, as this tragic story illustrates, content found on such sites can be damaging, dangerous and deadly — especially for children.”