Parents suing TikTok over children’s deaths say it ‘has no compassion’

The four British families suing TikTok for the alleged wrongful deaths of their children have accused the tech giant of having “no compassion”.

In an exclusive group interview for BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, the parents said they were taking the company to court to try to find out the truth about what happened to their children and seek accountability.

The parents believe their children died after taking part in a viral trend that circulated on the video-sharing platform in 2022.

TikTok says it prohibits dangerous content and challenges. It has blocked searches for videos and hashtags related to the particular challenge the children’s parents say is linked to their deaths.

The lawsuit, filed in the US on Thursday, claims that Isaac Kenevan, 13, Archie Battersbee, 12, Julian “Jools” Sweeney, 14, and Maia Walsh, 13, died while attempting the so-called “blackout challenge”.

The complaint was filed in the Superior Court of the State of Delaware by the US-based Social Media Victims Law Center on behalf of Archie’s mother Hollie Dance, Isaac’s mum Lisa Kenevan, Jools’ mother Ellen Roome and Maia’s dad Liam Walsh.

In the interview, Ms Kenevan accused TikTok of breaching “their own rules”. In the lawsuit, the families claim that the platform breached the rules in a number of ways, including around not showing or promoting dangerous content that could cause significant physical harm.

Ms Dance said that the bereaved families were brushed off with “the same corporate statement” showing “no compassion at all – there’s no meaning behind that statement for them”.