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<\/p>\nTHERE was nothing unusual when 15-year-old Mason Bogard told his parents Joann and Steve that he was going upstairs for his evening shower.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moments later, after hearing a loud thud from the bathroom, Steve, 58, a fireman, went upstairs to investigate, and the Bogards\u2019 lives were changed forever.<\/p>\n
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Mason, a typical teenage boy who loved the outdoors and woodwork, was lying motionless on the bathroom floor with a belt around his neck. <\/p>\n
While Joann, 57, called an ambulance, Steve began CPR and managed to get his son\u2019s heart beating once again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember thinking when we arrived at the hospital: \u2018We got him here, he\u2019s going to be OK now,\u2019\u201d Joann, a school administrator, recalls. \u201cBut it wasn\u2019t to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
With brain damage caused by oxygen starvation and reliant on a ventilator to breathe for him, Mason underwent tests, until doctors broke the devastating news to his parents \u2013 there was no hope.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to let him go, his brain damage was unsurvivable,\u201d says Joann, from Evansville, Indiana, USA. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was the hardest thing we\u2019ve ever had to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Leaving the hospital in May 2019 after their son\u2019s death, the family were left with crippling grief and confusion. <\/p>\n The circumstances indicated Mason had taken his own life, but this made no sense to his mother.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMason was happy and healthy and had no history of depression,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n But Joann believes that an online search she conducted in a desperate attempt to understand what had happened, revealed the shocking reason for her son\u2019s death.<\/p>\n She discovered hundreds of videos posted on social media sites of teenagers taking on something called the Choking Challenge,<\/p>\n Choking Game or Blackout Challenge. Children and teens had filmed themselves strangling each other or choking themselves to the point of unconsciousness. <\/p>\n They were posting the footage online for comments and likes.<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe what I was seeing. Kids were choking, passing out, waking up and laughing \u2013 and getting \u2018likes\u2019 for it,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n \u201cMason used social media to watch tutorials for woodwork techniques, and I believe that must have been where he saw this content.\u201d<\/p>\n In a video found on Mason\u2019s phone the day after his funeral, footage showed him trying the choking challenge, but not succeeding in falling unconscious. <\/p>\n It was filmed the day before he died.<\/p>\n It\u2019s Joann\u2019s firm belief that a social media challenge killed her son. Sadly, Mason\u2019s death is not unique. <\/p>\n His is just one of many cases around the world in which young people have died, including in the UK, potentially as a result of viral social media challenges.<\/p>\n Last month, 14-year-old Harris Wolobah, from Worcester, Massachusetts, died, allegedly after participating in a dangerous TikTok trend called the One Chip Challenge. <\/p>\n It involves eating what\u2019s said to be the spiciest tortilla chip on the planet, and not eating or drinking anything else to ease the pain for as long as possible.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope and I pray to God that no parents will go through what I\u2019m going through,\u201d Harris\u2019 mother Lois said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to see anybody hurting the way I\u2019m hurting. I miss my son so much.\u201d<\/p>\n In August last year, Lauryn Keating, 31, from Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, discovered her 14-year-old son Leon Brown dead in his room at their home.\u00a0<\/p>\n She later learned that he, like Mason, had been trying the viral Blackout Challenge.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of Leon\u2019s friends told me he\u2019d been doing the challenge on FaceTime with them after seeing it on TikTok,\u201d Lauren said in an interview shortly after her son\u2019s death. <\/p>\n \u201cHe and his friends probably thought it was a laugh and a joke. One of the kids who he was on FaceTime with told me what he had done. <\/p>\n "She said they thought they would all wake up. But Leon didn\u2019t come back around. It went horribly wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n In response to Leon\u2019s death, a TikTok spokesperson said: \u201cOur deepest sympathies go out to Leon Brown\u2019s family during this incredibly difficult time. <\/p>\n "The safety of our community is our priority and we take any claim about a dangerous challenge very seriously. Content of this nature is prohibited on our platform and would be removed if found.\u201d<\/p>\n As recently as May this year, 16-year-old Christy Sibali Dominique Gloire Gassaille, from Orl\u00e9ans in France, died after she reportedly tried a dangerous trend on TikTok called the Scarf Game \u2013 or Jeu de Foulard \u2013 which involves people tying a length of cloth around their necks. <\/p>\n It can result in low levels of oxygen to the brain, which can cause seizures and injury, and can be fatal.\u00a0<\/p>\n By the end of this month, however, the Online Safety Bill should have passed into law in the UK \u2013 it was approved by the House of Lords several weeks ago \u2013 while the Kids Online Safety\u00a0 Act (KOSA) is also going through the Senate in the US. <\/p>\n It\u2019s hoped these will bring some level of protection to young people and their families against this trend for dangerous online challenges.<\/p>\n It will order social media companies to protect under-18s from encountering dangerous stunts and challenges on their platforms.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Blackout Challenge was linked to the death of at least 15 children aged 12 or younger in the 18 months leading up to December 2022, and at least five children aged 13-14 also died in that time.**<\/p>\n In July 2022, US legal firm The Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC) announced that it had filed two wrongful death lawsuits against TikTok on behalf of the families of eight-year-old Lalani Erika Walton of Temple, Texas, and nine-year-old Arriani Jaileen Arroyo of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, both of whom died of self-strangulation while participating in the Blackout Challenge, which they allegedly watched on the social media platform. The case is ongoing.<\/p>\n Not all social media challenges are fatal, but many still cause injuries to children. In August this year, several children were rushed to hospital in Southampton after another reported social media challenge, which encouraged them to overdose on paracetamol and see who could stay in hospital the longest.\u00a0<\/p>\n Police and crime commissioner for Hampshire and Isle of Wight, Donna Jones, worked on the UK Online Safety Bill, and was told about the hospitalisations in Southampton when they happened.<\/p>\n She says: \u201cThese challenges are a very worrying trend, and I am concerned that children are not aware of the dangers. The Online Safety Bill can\u2019t come soon enough.\u201d<\/p>\n Mum-of-two Judith*, 40, from Suffolk experienced first-hand the risks posed by these challenges in February this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n Unbeknown to her, her 14-year-old twin sons had been filming themselves taking part in the Tap Out Challenge, which involves choking someone until they\u2019re on the verge of passing out, at which point they \u201dtap out\u201d to tell the other \u201cplayer\u201d to stop. They were planning to post the footage online \u2013 until one of the boys was hurt.<\/p>\n \u201cI was working in my home office when one of my sons began shouting for me to come \u2013 and quickly. I ran to their room to find his twin lying on the floor, ashen-faced, with a large cut to the back of his head that was bleeding heavily,\u201d recalls Judith.<\/p>\n \u201cThrough tears, they explained that one had been choking the other in a headlock, as part of this so-called game, until he was almost unconscious and had \u2018tapped out\u2019 to signal to stop.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the twin who\u2019d been choked stood up, he felt really woozy and fainted, hitting his head when he fell to the floor. <\/p>\n "Thankfully, he\u2019d come round almost immediately, but he had a deep cut. I was absolutely horrified this had been going on right under my nose, and couldn\u2019t believe how foolish they\u2019d been.\u201d<\/p>\n Judith took her son to A&E, where his wound was stitched up, but she agreed not to tell staff how he\u2019d injured himself, simply saying he\u2019d felt faint after skipping breakfast.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were both very embarrassed and upset, and pleaded with me not to tell anyone what they\u2019d done,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n \u201cI made them swear they\u2019d never try anything like it ever again. I believe they won\u2019t, but I still feel very shaken about how much worse it could have potentially been.\u201d<\/p>\n Since Mason\u2019s death four years ago, Joann has become a vocal campaigner, raising awareness and working with legislators to bring in laws in the US to help protect children from harmful content online.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery week, I go online and see children choking themselves,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd that re-traumatises me. I cry, I pick myself up and I do it again because it is important.<\/p>\n \u201cI imagine Mason watched these videos and probably had a false sense of safety,\u201d says Joann. <\/p>\n \u201cHe probably saw someone who passed out, was OK, and he probably thought it was funny. The video got some likes and laughs. The kids get validation by posting them.\u201d<\/p>\n This is a sentiment echoed by psychologist Dr Charlotte Armitage.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t develop the risk-averse part of our brains until we are around 25, which is why young people have high rates of accidents. <\/p>\n "Children push boundaries and seek risky behaviour,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n She believes the main reason children follow these challenges is their need to be liked.<\/p>\n \u201cThey need to be validated. This has always been true in the real world. When a video is liked online, it\u2019s perceived as the same kind of validation people get from their friends when they do a dare,\u201d she explains. <\/p>\n \u201cThe more outrageous the video you create, the more likes you get and the better that makes you feel.\u201d<\/p>\n Donna says parents need to educate themselves about the type of content on platforms, talk to their children about the dangers and monitor what their children are watching closely.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Kids Online Safety Act in the US will require social media platforms to disable addictive product features and provide an opt-out of algorithmic content. <\/p>\n It also requires social media platforms to perform an annual independent audit assessing risks to minors, their compliance with this KOSA, and whether the platform is taking meaningful steps to prevent those harms.<\/p>\n All these features, says Joann, would have saved Mason and countless other children. For Joann, the work continues.<\/p>\n \u201cThis content is rampant,\u201d she says. \u201cMy main goal is to protect other families from having to go through this, because it is horrific. I work with a lot of other parents who have lost their children, and I think all of our kids are proud of us for the work we are doing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/newspress-collage-11401263-1695799539970.jpg\")
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