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British families sue TikTok in US

Underscoring the tensions, a US state judge in Delaware on Jan. 16, 2026 hears TikTok's bid to dismiss a lawsuit filed last year by the parents of five British children who died while allegedly performing prank and challenge videos. The lawsuit alleged that TikTok's algorithms promoted dangerous content to children, including a so-called 'blackout challenge' that encouraged people to choke themselves. 'ByteDance harmed these children after its leadership knew that its programming decisions were resulting in the accidental deaths of children,' the lawsuit filed in the Delaware Superior Court said. Some of the children were below 13 years old. TikTok in 2022 secured the dismissal of a separate lawsuit accusing it of causing the death of a 10-year-old girl.

STRINGR.COM / ABC AFFILIATE WPVI VIA REUTERS

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Transcript
00:00We're doing it for our children, for the future of children, you know, so it's groundbreaking.
00:14It was very hard to listen to that because actually I was quite strong and then I felt really emotional because it's our children that we've lost.
00:42And they're saying, well, it doesn't matter because it's not their responsibility for what's on their platform.
00:47It's our children that have been harmed on their platform and that is fundamentally wrong, in my opinion.
00:53Well, certainly in my case, I know with the other British parents, is that they didn't have mental health problems.
00:58They were on a platform playing and having fun in their eyes.
01:02They didn't have mental health problems that, I don't know, it's fundamentally wrong.
01:08Nothing was wrong until they downloaded that app.
01:11Nothing was wrong until they downloaded TikTok on their phones without permission because TikTok made out that it was safe for a 13-year-old to have TikTok.
01:23That's the bottom line and that's why we're here.
01:25We just want the truth and this company are doing everything they can to prevent us from getting to the truth.
01:34Every single trick in the book and that's what we're here for.
01:38And the fact that we've come all the way from England, we don't want to have to come here and they're saying, well, we should sue in England.
01:43You know, they're incorporated here.
01:45We came here to hold them to account and we've travelled, you know, across the pond to get here to make a point.
01:51And it's highly addictive and it's not fit for purpose.
01:57There's just no way fit for purpose.
01:59All our children were happy and we've handed them a device in good faith and social media have taken our children away.
02:08And it needs to be ramped up.
02:11Laws need to be changed.
02:13Because why are we all standing here?
02:15Because we care about what's happened to our children and the future of the children as well.
02:19These children were on TikTok.
02:27Unbeknownst to their parents, they became addicted to TikTok.
02:30Not because they did anything wrong, but because TikTok worked as it was intended to do.
02:36And the way TikTok generates engagement is not by showing you what you want to see, but what you can't look away from.
02:43And we know from human psychology that psychologically discordant material, difficult material, disturbing material triggers a greater dopamine hit than benign material.
02:55And as a consequence of the deliberate design decisions that TikTok made, these children were subjected to blackout challenges, telling them that it would be cool to tie a ligature around their neck and experience euphoria when it was released.
03:13And tragically, but predictably, the children passed out and they did not have the ability to release the ligature.
03:25And that's why we're here today.
03:27And that's why we're here today.
03:57And that's why we're here today.
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