It seems something out of a bad horror movie but its as real as it gets. After the Blue Whale and Momo challenges, there’s a new viral challenge that encourages teens in UAE to hang themselves. And its already giving parents sleepless nights. The Pass Out Challenge is now too big to ignore.
This time its on TikTok, the popular social media app that has taken the world by storm. The Tiktok Challenge has already resulted in injuries to several teenagers in UAE, since it calls on participants to strangle themselves or their friends. Did we hear that right? That’s suicide and murder right there.
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The Pass Out Challenge
Khaleej TImes reports that one parent recounted her ordeal with this harrowing TikTok challenge. Her son came home one day with a bruised neck. Apparently, this kid tried to strangle himself in different ways, which explains the injury he sustained.
A 12 year old boy in Rajasthan, India has died as a result of this challenge.
Alarmed at the spate of incidents, TikTok’s MENA chapter has also responded to the rise in incidents:
According to Gita Ghaemmaghami, Regional Communications Director – MENA TikTok:
“TikTok is committed to maintaining a safe and positive in-app environment for our users and in no way endorses or promotes videos that violate our Community Guidelines. Irresponsible trends that encourage dangerous behavior are regrettably pervasive across the internet, but TikTok does not endorse nor tolerate content that features dangerous subject matter.”
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As to what measures the company is taking to curb this Pass Out Challenge:
“We are actively investigating this and we are in the process of removing related harmful content. This is a complex, industry-wide challenge and we are consistently evaluating and strengthening our safety measures in our ongoing commitment to safeguard the well-being of our community.”
For now, Gita says that all such users should have a look at the community guidelines for the usage of TikTok. Content and users promoting self-harm will be summarily banned as soon as the company identifies it.
Users and parents are also encouraged to turn on the restricted mode for the app. This will help filter out inappropriate content for many users. It also includes comment filters as well as screen-time management tools.
It can be done by following these steps.
HOW TO TURN ITS RESTRICTED MODE
- Go to your Profile tab (tap the Profile icon).
- Tap the Settings icon (the one with three dots) in the top right corner.
- Tap Digital Wellbeing.
- Tap Restricted Mode and follow the steps in the app.
