Viral ‘Blackout Challenge’ Leaves 12-Year-Old Boy Dead
A social media viral challenge has left a 12-year-old boy dead from trying a dangerous stunt he saw online. Tristan Casson took the “blackout challenge,” from TikTok, where participants try to make themselves pass out by holding their breath or otherwise cutting off their air supply.
The boy’s mother, Taylor Davis, said her other sons found Tristan unresponsive in his bedroom and FaceTimed her to report what they’d found. She was just down the street from home, and called the police.
According to Cleveland.com, paramedics took the child to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The incident is under investigation, according to Richmond Heights Police Chief Thomas Wetzel, who expressed condolences to the boy’s family.
Davis insists that her son was not suicidal, and that his strangulation death was the result of his attempting the online trend. She said Tristan always followed new dances and trends popular on TikTok. Davis said her son, who was in the sixth grade, had a bright future and he was the first person at his middle school to obtain a license to fly a drone.
Back in 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report explaining that some 82 young people died from playing what has been called “the choking game.” People would attempt to obtain a brief euphoric state by intentionally choking oneself or another person.
The activity has resurfaced in popularity, and the “blackout challenge” has been linked to the deaths of at least 15 children ages 12 or younger in the past 18 months according to recent reporting from Bloomberg Businessweek.
Davis warns parents to monitor their children’s social media. She said she often checked her son’s phone, but his search history was cleared the last time she checked.
Family friend, Tanisha Watson, created a GoFundMe page to help Casson’s family cover funeral expenses. She expressed her frustration over the child’s death. Cleveland.com quotes her as saying, “TikTok needs to control what it shows on its platform. I have parental controls on everything, but these videos can pop out and be seen by children like my son no matter what.”
