More than 12,000 people have signed a petition to TikTok seeking “mirror” accounts for parents, which would give parents access to the videos their children are watching.
The petition follows the death of a 12-year-old boy in Bethany, Oklahoma, on July 20, who died after attempting to complete a Tiktok trend called the “blackout” challenge. The challenge prompts Tiktok users record themselves holding their breath or choking themselves until they lose consciousness. The boy was found unresponsive with ligature marks on his neck and died the next morning.
Advocacy group ParentsTogether say that “mirror” accounts would enable parents to intervene in dangerous situations and talk to their kids about harmful content, citing cases such extreme dieting or white supremacist material as examples.