Exclusive:TikTok challenges: tech site removes ‘dangerous’ breathing dares after NationalWorld campaign

TikTok has removed a number of “dangerous” breathing challenge videos after a NationalWorld campaign alerted it to complaints from a grieving mum whose son died in tragic circumstances.

Lisa Kenevan’s little boy Isaac passed away in March 2022, aged 13, after likely taking part in a choke challenge that had become popular on social media. An inquest ruled Isaac, who was “highly inquisitive and intelligent”, died due to misadventure after police found two videos on his phone of him performing the dare.

Since then Lisa has become a campaigner for greater internet safety, and has repeatedly reported videos on TikTok of challenges that encourage people to hold their breath for at least a minute. The videos, one of which named “killer” was viewed more than 5.9million times, appeared to be aimed at children, as they were designed in the style of the Minecraft game and used voices from Super Mario.

The clips seemed to joke about people dying. Halfway through, a comment appeared saying “are you still alive?” and it encouraged viewers to “share this to a friend to challenge them”. Comments on TikTok included “I made it but was about to pass out”, “I made it all the way but almost died of breath” and “I’m not alive sorry”.

When Lisa, 51, reported the videos to TikTok last year, it found that there was no violation. After NationalWorld raised the cases with the tech giant, it escalated the complaints and initially added an age limit on the videos. Then following our article, it banned the profile which had posted more than a dozen breathing challenges.

The tech site’s guidelines state: “We don’t allow the following: showing or promoting dangerous activities, games, dares, challenges, or stunts that cause or could cause significant physical harm.” 

A TikTok spokesperson said: “TikTok does not allow dangerous challenges, and we proactively find 99% of content removed for breaking these rules. We partner with independent safeguarding organisations to continuously strengthen our approach, which includes age-restricting certain content and features, and blocking harmful search terms."

TikTok said it does not show videos of known dangerous challenges, such as “choke challenge”, in its search results, and instead directs searches and hashtags to an Online Challenges Safety Centre page created with guidance from youth safety experts.

Lisa told NationalWorld that it was “fantastic that it’s been taken down”, however she said: “it has taken since last June, with repeated reporting [to TikTok], and every time it came back as no violation. It’s taken an intervention from media such as NationalWorld to get banned - it’s shocking."

Lisa said she would like TikTok to temporarily suspend videos while complaints can be assessed, adding: “At the moment it appears that there’s no rhyme or reason why some challenges stay up. It’s taken ages for that particular account to get taken down, it’s absolutely disgusting.”

The 5Rights Foundation, a charity campaigning for children’s safety online, said it shouldn’t be up to parents like Lisa to monitor TikTok. Executive director Leanda Barrington-Leach told NationalWorld: “This is a really good result, and we commend TikTok for doing the right thing. However, let's be clear, it's not the job of parents to monitor the output of tech companies to ensure they comply with their own rules as well as the letter of the law. 

“That's a responsibility that belongs to the company itself; it's theirs and theirs alone. This acts as a stern reminder to companies that the design of their products must not allow pushing dangerous content; that the terms and conditions children sign-up to need to be respected; and complaints need to be swiftly acted upon.”

Following NationalWorld’s initial report, Stephen Metcalfe, Lisa’s MP in South Basildon and East Thurrock, Essex, said he wants tech companies to “take much more responsibility for what is on their platforms”. 

These kinds of videos are not limited to TikTok. Similar challenges, which appear to be aimed at children, have got tens of millions of views on YouTube and Instagram - some even joking about when a breathing dare goes wrong.

Metcalfe continued: “I’m sure that no one at TikTok or anywhere else for that matter wants this to happen, and so they are in a position to take action. Certainly when people report issues and highlight their concerns there should be a much greater response.”

The Tory MP is supporting Lisa and Hollie Dance, mum of Archie Battersbee, 12, who died after a strangulation prank or experiment went wrong, in a campaign to raise greater awareness to children and parents about online challenges.

He told NationalWorld: “We need to make adults, parents, carers more aware of the kind of content that is available on platforms and what their children, or those in their care, may be seeing. However quickly any platform may react, they are never going to stop everything being posted by individuals.

“Collectively, as a society, we have got to take more responsibility for what young people see and what influences they are under, and that means we’ve got to be more aware that the world is not the same one that we all grew up in. That’s the biggest challenge, getting parents, grandparents, carers to understand that there is stuff out there that might seem fairly benign but might lead to tragedy.”

The charity Internet Matters is also supporting Lisa and Hollie’s campaign. Carolyn Bunting, co-CEO, said: “We know that dangerous challenges can have a devastating impact on individual children and are a source of significant concern for parents and teachers, who often do not know how to respond. 

“We welcome the new Online Safety Act which places a duty on platforms to tackle content that is legal but harmful to children, including content encouraging participation in dangerous challenges. 

“But it continues to be vitally important for parents to stay engaged with their children’s safety online – not least because the new legal protections aren’t yet in force. Helping children understand the potential risks of online challenges and agreeing how they will respond when seeing this kind of content is key.”

Ralph Blackburn is NationalWorld’s politics editor based in Westminster, where he gets special access to Parliament, MPs and government briefings. If you liked this article you can follow Ralph on X (Twitter) here and sign up to his free weekly newsletter Politics Uncovered, which brings you the latest analysis and gossip from Westminster every Sunday morning.

For more advice on online challenges visit Internet Matters' website.