“I’d rather not do this. I’d rather I was left to grieve, but I’m stuck in a tunnel and I can’t get out.”
Warning: This story contains descriptions of parents finding their children unresponsive that some readers may find upsetting.
Liam Walsh’s daughter Maia died three years ago. She was 13 when she was found unresponsive.
Noah Gordon, just 12 years old, had passed away just months before, on 9 December 2021.
Noah Gordon. Pic: Louise Gordon
He was found by his brother in his bedroom. His sister tried to help mum, Louise Gordon, to resuscitate him. They couldn’t.
“When I was checking Noah’s phone, I was looking for messages from school friends. I was looking for bullying.
“I never thought to check social media to see what he’d been looking at,” said Louise.
Three more families were torn apart in similar circumstances, within months of each other.
Jools was 14. He’d spent the entire day mucking about at home with his friends, but an hour after they fell laughing and joking out of the front door, he was found unresponsive by his mum, Ellen Roome.
Archie was 12. He was planning to go to the cinema with mum Hollie Dance later that day. Instead, she had a phone call to 999 that lasted four minutes and twenty-three seconds.
Her “pranky, happy” son was unresponsive and after four months on life-support, he died.
Isaac, an “August baby” who loved to be the joker, was 13. His mum, Lisa Kenevan, found him unresponsive and again tried to resuscitate him.
When the police took away his devices, they found videos apparently recorded through TikTok (but not posted) showing Isaac pointing to his neck and laughing.
Jools with his mum, Ellen. Pic: Ellen Roome
All five parents believe their children died attempting a dangerous stunt known as the blackout challenge.
It’s a stunt that has been doing the rounds for decades and is banned on mainstream social media apps, including TikTok, because it is so dangerous.
But the parents believe their children saw the challenge on TikTok – although they don’t have proof. TikTok says the data around what their children were watching has likely been deleted under data privacy rules.
The group of bereaved parents are suing TikTok in the US for wrongful death, a process that may see them find out what happened to their children, if that data can be recovered. Their first hearing is on Friday.
Since the parents began campaigning for better rights and protections around young people online, TikTok has always said the blackout challenge never trended on its platform.
It’s been banned on there since 2020.
“Boredom set in through the COVID times. And I think this is what triggered [Isaac’s] brain to think, ‘Yeah, let’s give it a go, why not everyone else has survived, I’ll be fine’,” says Lisa.
“Unfortunately, this day on 8 March, he did this act and 9 March, he’s no longer here.
“How the hell do you, as a parent, get your head around that.”
Isaac and his mum Lisa. Pic: Lisa Kenevan
For all of them, the campaign to find out what happened to their children has put grief on hold.
“You’re not allowed to grieve. You haven’t started to grieve,” says Hollie.
“You have that initial grief, that initial shock but when you don’t know what happened to your child, it’s very hard to find closure or come to any kind of sense about it all.”
Archie Battersbee. Pic: Hollie Dance
Two of the parents, Ellen and Liam, only had one child. For them, this battle is all-consuming. They’re scared about what happens when it ends.
“What happens when we get to the end?” asks Ellen.
“What’s our purpose? Because I’m no longer a parent. I don’t have a purpose.
“I no longer have my job. I no longer have a partner. I no longer have a child. So when I get to end of this, then what happens?”
Maia Walsh. Pic: Liam Walsh
Liam wishes it could have been simpler but he won’t stop pushing to discover what happened.
“My daughter deserves better than this, than to be [brushed] under the carpet without an investigation into why she’s died, and her family deserves much more than this too.
“I’ve often thought to myself, if she’d just fallen over and hit her head, you’d just know that’s what had happened.”
“I’d rather not do this. I’d rather I was left to grieve, but I’m stuck in a tunnel and I can’t get out.”
The parents’ first hearing is a motion to dismiss by TikTok. The company says they’re being sued in the wrong place because the harm occurred in the UK.
TikTok told Sky News: “Our deepest sympathies remain with these families.
“We strictly prohibit content that promotes or encourages dangerous behaviour.
“Using robust detection systems and dedicated enforcement teams to proactively identify and remove this content, we remove 99% that’s found to break these rules before it is reported to us.”
