TikTok breaks silence after boy dies in sick 'Benadryl challenge' as pals filmed
TikTok has broken its silence after a 13-year-old boy died while doing a sick 'Benadryl challenge' as his mates filmed him to upload to the social media app.
Jacob Stevens took part in the twisted viral challenge, which sees users down the over-the-counter antihistamine medicine in a bid to try and create a hallucination.
The teenager was being filmed by his friends at home when he started to suffer a seizure.
He spent six days on a ventilator as the amount of medicine he consumed was "too much for his body", according to his dad Justin.
Justin said: "They said we could keep him on the vent, that he could lay there but he will never open his eyes, he'll never breathe, smile, walk or talk."
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The family has been trying to raise awareness of the sick challenge as his dad called it "the worst day of my life" when medics turned off his life-support machine.
Jacob Stevens' dad wanted to share this heartbreaking image to warn others of the danger of the stupid trend (Facebook/Justin Stevens)
The teen died after six days on a ventilator (Facebook/Justin Stevens)TikTok, the Chinese social media giant, has since offered "sympathies" to the heartbroken family.
It told The Mirror in a statement: "Our deepest sympathies go out to the family. At TikTok, we strictly prohibit and remove content that promotes dangerous behaviour with the safety of our community as a priority.
"We have never seen this type of content trend on our platform and have blocked searches for years to help discourage copycat behaviour.
Jacob was a caring kid who could brighten any day, his family said"Our team of 40,000 safety professionals works to remove violations of our Community Guidelines and we encourage our community to report any content or accounts they're concerned about."
D. Rahul Gupta, director of National Drug Control Policy for the White House, told ABC the social media app has to do more to stop sick challenges.
He said: “We’re working actively with social media companies to ask them to do more. They can and they must do more to hold these bad actors and these kinds of campaigns accountable and remove them from their platforms.”
The dangerous challenge is called 'Benadryl challenge' (Publicity Picture)Jacob's family, from from Columbus, Ohio, US, has urged parents to monitor what their children are watching on the internet.
Justin said: "Keep an eye at what they're doing on that phone. Talk to them about the situation,' he said. "I want everyone to know about my son."
“Talk to ‘em about, you know, the situation. I want everybody to know about my son’s situation.”
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They are also urging lawmakers to introduce an age-restriction for making accounts as this will force users to provide ID to verify their age.
Diana Stevens, Jacob's gran, has also contacted lawmakers to put age-restrictions on over-the-counter medicine Benadryl.
Jacob's pals filmed him as he took the pills and began to have a seizureShe said: "I am going to do everything I can to try to make sure another child doesn’t go through it."
Medical experts called it a "death trap" and warned youngsters to not participate in the dangerous TikTok challenge.
Dr Jen Caudle, a US doctor, said in a TikTok video: "It is a death trap if you ask me and the latest tragedy is an example of this.
"This is a warning to parents, for kids, for people out there. Do not try this.”
Benadryl manufacturer, Johnson and Johnson, said "the Benadryl TikTok trend is extremely concerning, dangerous and should be stopped immediately."
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