TRAGIC LOSS

Boy Died Doing Viral TikTok ‘Blackout Challenge’ While Friends Watched

Leon Brown’s death adds to roughly a dozen lives claimed around the world so far by the international challenge.

The lethal viral “Blackout Challenge” has claimed another life, this time leaving the family of 14-year-old Leon Brown in Scotland devastated. The challenge, which encourages young children to choke themselves until they pass out, garnered widespread criticism in the U.K. after another young boy, 12-year-old Archie Battersbee of England, was declared brain dead in July after attempting the feat. Brown’s mother, Lauryn Keating, said the boy was inspired to try the challenge after hearing about Battersbee, according to the Daily Mail. He reportedly called up his friends over FaceTime to watch the attempt, subsequently exposing them to his premature death. “Him and his friends probably thought it was a laugh and a joke,” Keating told The Record. “But Leon didn’t come back around. It went horribly wrong.” The international challenge has claimed around a dozen children’s lives around the world so far.