Leon’s mum has spoken out against the dangerous online challenge.
The family of a 14-year-old boy who passed away in Scotland last week, believe he was taking part in a dangerous online challenge.
Leon Brown was found unresponsive in his bedroom last week by his mother Lauryn Keating. Friends of Leon told Lauryn that her son was participating in a ‘blackout’ challenge, which causes those who take part lose consciousness. It’s thought that Archie Batttersbee did something similar before he became brain stem dead and eventually passed away this summer.
Ms Keating spoke out against the challenge, telling the Daily Record that these challenges are not worth risking your life over.
She explained: “One of Leon’s friends told me he had been doing the challenge on FaceTime with them after seeing it on TikTok.
“My Leon thought he would be the one to try it first. Him 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. She said they thought they would wake up. But Leon didn’t come back around. It went horribly wrong.
“I had heard of this challenge, because of what happened to Archie Battersbee. But you just don’t expect your own child to do it. Please warn them, these online challenges aren’t worth their lives. They aren’t worth ‘likes’ or whatever they are doing it for.”
In a statement issued to Tyla, TikTok extended their sympathies to their family and said: “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.”
A GoFundMe has since been set up to support Leon’s family and can be accessed here.
