UK parents suing TikTok over children’s deaths ‘suspicious’ about data claims

Ellen Roome and her son Julian. She is campaigning for a ‘Jools’ law,’, which would give parents the automatic right to their children’s data after their deaths. Photograph: Handout

Four British parents who are suing TikTok for the alleged wrongful deaths of their children say they are “suspicious” about the social media platform’s claim to have deleted their children’s data.

The parents have filed a lawsuit in the US that claims that their four children died in 2022 as a result of attempting the “blackout challenge”, a viral trend that circulated on social media in 2021.