Parents who are suing TikTok for the deaths of their children claim that it has ‘no compassion’
Laura Kuenssberg
Presenter, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg
BBC
From left to right: Parents Hollie Dance, Lisa Kenevan, Liam Walsh and Ellen Roome
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 claim that their children died because they took part in a video-sharing trend in 2022. TikTok claims it does not allow dangerous challenges or content. The lawsuit filed on Thursday in the US claims that Isaac Kenevan (13), Archie Battersbee (12), Julian “Jools Sweeney (14) and Maia Walsh (13), died after attempting the “blackout challenge”. The lawsuit claims that TikTok violated its own rules in a number of ways, including not showing or promoting dangerous content which could cause significant physical harm. Ms Kenevan also accused the platform of violating their “own rules” during the interview. Bereaved parent says TikTok showed “no empathy at all”. She has been trying to obtain data from TikTok that she thinks could provide clarity around his death.
Ms Kenevan said they were going to court to pursue “accountability – they need to look not just at us, but parents around the world, not just in England, it’s the US and everywhere”.
“We want TikTok to be forthcoming, to help us – why hold back on giving us the data?” “We want TikTok to be forthcoming, to help us – why hold back on giving us the data?” How can they sleep? “
“No faith” in government efforts
Mr Walsh stated that he has “no confidence” in the UK government’s attempts to protect children online. The Online Safety Act will be implemented this spring. But Mr Walsh stated, “I do not have faith and I am about to see if I am right or wrong.” I think that it is not showing its teeth enough. Two and a half year down the road, I have no answers. You could forgive me for not having faith. She said she was grateful to the other parents who had lost their children for their support. “You do have some days particularly bad – when it’s very difficult to function,” she said.
‘Some days are particularly bad,’ says Julian “Jools” Sweeney’s mother
The families’ lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance claims the deaths were “the foreseeable result of ByteDance’s engineered addiction-by-design and programming decisions”, which it says were “aimed at pushing children into maximizing their engagement with TikTok by any means necessary”.
And the lawsuit accuses ByteDance of having “created harmful dependencies in each child” through its design and “flooded them with a seemingly endless stream of harms”.
“These were not harms the children searched for or wanted to see when their use of TikTok began,” it claims.
Searches for videos or hashtags related to the challenge on TikTok are blocked, a policy the company says has been in place since 2020.
TikTok claims it blocks dangerous content and challenges from the platform. It also directs users who are searching for hashtags or videos towards its Safety Centre. The company told the BBC it proactively finds and removes 99% of content that breaks its rules before it is reported.
