Archie, the 12-year-old boy who participated in a viral challenge, dies

25% of TikTok users are between 10 and 19 years old. Most of these young people have carried out one of the most common phenomena on this platform: viral challenges. Some are innocuous, like performing the dance Chicken Teriyaki, by Rosalía. Others, however, tend to be deadly, like the one that took the life of Archie Battersbee.

This 12-year-old British boy was a talented gymnast and lover of mixed martial arts. He is also, and like any teenager, a fan of uploading videos to this social network. On April 7, Archie wanted to complete an online challenge, the “Blackout Challenge”, which consisted of holding your breath until you fainted. To do this, he took a rope and tied it around his neck.

When his mother found him in the room, the boy already had severe brain damage and his injuries were irreversible.. Since then he was admitted to the Royal London Hospital, until he was disconnected from life support on August 6. This last decision, to be disconnected, was an outcome with which his parents did not agree…

The boy’s family had taken legal action to ensure that life support was not removed.

Archie Battersbee and an unwanted ending

There are endings that carry with them a double tragedy. And this is an example of it. The first drama occurred, understandably, when the family discovered Archie’s body suffocated in his room. The second blow was received by parents who maintained an almost impossible, desperate desire. That your child would show improvement at some point.

Since the little boy was admitted to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, doctors knew that the child was brain dead and that it was best not to prolong his suffering. However, Paul Battersbee and Hollie Dance refused to do so and were confident in their future recovery. They maintained, as expected, a breath of needed hope.

Discrepancies between the hospital and the family led to litigation that reached the High Court in London. Finally, at the beginning of July, Judge Emma Arbuthnot ruled that the child should be removed from life support. To reach that decision, brainstem testing, or diagnosis of brain death, was performed.

This evaluation consists of performing a series of techniques to analyze the activity of all intracranial neurological structures, of the two cerebral hemispheres and the brain stem. Archie showed an irreversible cessation in all of his brain functions. Therefore, and despite the family’s refusal, he was disconnected on August 6.

TikTok and viral challenges, the new rites of passage for young people

On TikTok everything goes very fast. You don’t even have to move a finger, because the videos follow one another in a few seconds. Each aspect of its engineering design responds to one objective: to capture the user’s attention for hours. Children, adolescents and the younger population are the main “product” of this application.

One of the most worrying aspects associated with TikTok They are precisely the viral challenges. Archie’s death is not an isolated case. Dying from asphyxiation or hanging is something that has happened before in even younger children.. In fact, at the beginning of 2022, a 10-year-old girl lost her life in the same way.

Ingesting dangerous substances, hitting objects, walking through heights or the most recent: disappearing for 48 hours without saying anything. Viral challenges can destroy entire lives and throw society into utter confusion. Why do they do it? What is in the mind of a preteen that makes him capable of putting a rope around his neck until he faints?

Research from the International University of La Rioja (UNIR) provides the answer.

What’s behind a viral challenge?

The search for social recognition is one of the reasons behind these tests.

There is an almost impulsive motivation to satisfy that challenge. They not only seek to publish it and obtain recognition from their acquaintances and the community associated with that challenge. There is an intrinsic desire to prove to themselves that they can achieve it. We could say that we are facing the new “rites of initiation” of the 21st century. No matter how absurd it may seem to us, obviously.

We must also think that At ages between 10 and 19, the prefrontal cortex has not yet reached its full development. They find it difficult to measure the danger and act on impulse, without first calibrating, reflecting or meditating on their behaviors and decisions.

How can we prevent them?

No one should have to relive the tragedy suffered by Archie’s family. Battersbee. However, even though TikTok has eliminated the viral drowning challenge, new, equally dangerous challenges emerge every day. Since today, ByteDancethe Chinese company behind it, has no intention of regulating these practices, once again, it is the job of parents and educators to do so.

We must assume that the strategy is not always to prohibit Internet access to our adolescents and preteens. However, Yes, it is advisable to limit and supervise its use.Let’s poll our children about their opinion of viral challenges. Let’s ask them if their friends have done one and if they themselves have done it too. Asking questions about school trends, friends, and new fashions will give us a clue. What is its use and conception of these challenges.Let’s encourage your critical thinking. Let’s ask questions so that they become aware of the risk of these more extreme challenges. Questions like: don’t you think that can be dangerous? How would you feel if a friend of yours ended up injured or killed? Let’s think that, in general, children are more willing to talk about their peers than about themselves.Let’s always try to follow our children on all their social networks to monitor what they post, follow or view.

Finally, Nothing is as important as developing reflective, critical and rational thinking skills in our children. Dialogue, good communication, listening without judging, guiding them and asking questions will help them in this process. Also in the good use of social networks.

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