A 12-year-old boy from Kota, Rajasthan, hanged himself from a noose in his bathroom as a part of the TikTok challenge.

Allegedly, as a part of the TikTok challenge, he wore a mangalsutra (a sacred  thread worn by Hindu married women) and bangles, wrapped a metal chain around his neck and hanged himself in the bathroom.

The Incident

This incident took place late at night. When the boy’s parents started looking for him in the morning, they found him hanging in the bathroom.

The boy’s father said that the state he was found in, was exactly as described in the TikTok challenge. “He was wearing mangalsutra and bangles and was wearing a noose made from chains and was found hanging. He was using TikTok the entire night,” India Today quoted the father as saying.

According to SSI Bharat Singh, the boy was declared dead upon being brought to the hospital. A postmortem was conducted on the body.

“If it was not for TikTok then my child would have been alive,” the distraught father said.

Although Google and App Inc removed the viral video sharing app after the ban from the Play store and App Store, the ban was later lifted.

Time For A Permanent Solution?

With the TikTok app coming up with endless, and sometimes dangerous challenges that often pose a threat to life, was lifting the ban and exposing children to dangerous content a good idea?

Studies suggest that increased and frequent use of social network such as TikTok results in increased dissatisfaction in children over a period of time.

For instance, a “makeup removal challenge” that went viral on TikTok, with young girls posting videos showing their beauty transformations, often involving false eyelashes, colourful contact lenses, wigs and nose and chin prosthetics.

Not stopping here, TikTok even has videos featuring simulations of sexual acts, self-harm and even a dead body, an investigation carried out by the South China Morning Post (SCMP) revealed.

It is also said to contain inappropriate blasphemous and pornographic content.

“This is a very concerning incident. Our hearts go out to the family and friends of the deceased. At TikTok, we are committed to maintaining a safe and positive in-app environment for our users, while encouraging them to showcase their creativity. In line with this, we would like to confirm that there is no such hashtag challenge or activity that TikTok is promoting on its app,” TikTok tells The Logical Indian.

“TikTok in no way endorses, promotes or encourages its users to engage in any behaviour that might cause harm to oneself or anyone else either via challenges or content published. We have a zero tolerance policy on content and behaviour that is against our Community Guidelines,” TikTok adds.

Users are often taking life-threatening risks for the sake of going viral. A two-year-old in Wuhan, China, sustained injuries to the head after a relative attempted to flip the child 180 degrees to recreate a dangerous act he saw in a Tik Tok video.

Recently, a teenager lost his life after accidentally pressing the trigger of a pistol while shooting a clip for TikTok in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district.

While some of these challenges and acts may often look harmless on the surface, they can clearly have disastrous effects, to the extent of killing someone. TikTok made headlines when it was banned and again when the ban was lifted, and then the debate faded into oblivion.

With the recent death of the 12-year-old boy, TikTok must take cognizance of the issue and come up with a permanent solution.

Also Read: TikTok Removed From App Store & Playstore After SC Refuses To Stay Ban Order