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A 9-year-old Texas girl tragically died after accidentally strangling herself during a “blackout challenge” — as her distraught parents warned the dangerous social media obsession is “not a game.”
JackLynn Blackwell choked herself to death in her family’s backyard on Feb. 3 — soon after she had shown her grandmother a video of someone else taking part in the unsafe so-called challenge that has been circulating on social media.
“She goes out to play like she always does, out in the yard. I noticed it’s kind of quiet — quieter than it should’ve been,” her grief-stricken dad, Curtis Blackwell, told CBS News of the grim day.
“Then I saw her kind of around the corner that goes to the carport, saw her hair. I said, ‘JackLynn!’ I thought she was bending over playing cause she was always in that area playing, but she wasn’t playing.”
The father quickly went to investigate and found his lifeless daughter with a cord wrapped around her neck.
“I tried to do everything I could to save her. I got her off the cord. I tried to give her CPR until the first responders got there. It was the most terrifying, shocking thing I’ve ever seen,” he added.
“It was horrible to see my daughter in such a vulnerable state because of something so senseless.”
Jacklynn’s parents have ripped the devastating social media trend — and urged others to be aware of what their kids were soaking in online.
“It’s not a joke, it’s not a game, it’s life and death, ” Curtis said.
“Most of the kids are like 9 years old to 14 years old. A lot of kids her age, their brains aren’t fully developed, and they are very easily influenced.”
“There’s too many of these kids lost for these companies not to be held accountable in my eyes,” the dad added.
The dangerous game — one of several potentially fatal fads to circulate on sites including TikTok and Instagram — can restrict oxygen to the brain, possibly resulting in seizures, serious injury or death.
Jacklynn’s death came just days before a landmark trial kicked off in California that is seeking to hold the world’s biggest social media companies responsible for harms to kids who use their platforms.
Instagram’s parent company, Meta, and Google’s YouTube are fighting back against claims that their platforms deliberately addict and harm children.
TikTok and Snap, which were originally named in the lawsuit, settled for undisclosed sums before the trial kicked off.
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