TikTok responds to “Benadryl Challenge” after the death of a 13-year-old boy

Earlier this week, a 13-year-old boy from Ohio, USA, was confirmed to have tragically died after taking part in a TikTok challenge.

Jacob Stevens had participated in the “Benadryl Challenge,” which encourages participants to take dangerously high doses of the aforementioned antihistamine in an attempt to trigger hallucinations. ABC6 reported that the teen suffered a severe overdose: Stevens’ friends claimed his body began convulsing shortly after ingesting the medication. He was on a ventilator for six days before he finally passed away.

The teen’s father, Justin Stevens, said: “No brain scan, there was nothing there. They said we could keep him in the ventilation shaft, that he could stay there but he would never open his eyes. He will never breathe, smile, walk or talk”.

TikTok has now responded to the teen’s death and outlined the steps the company is taking to prevent something like this from happening again.

“Our deepest condolences to the family. On TikTok, we strictly prohibit and remove content that promotes dangerous behavior with the safety of our community as a priority.the social media giant said in a statement provided to The Mirror. “We have never seen this type of content trend on our platform and have blocked search for years to help discourage copycat behavior.“.

“Our team of 40,000 security professionals are working to eliminate violations of our Community Guidelines and we encourage our community to report any content or account that concerns them”.

Stevens’ family has been warning other parents about the situation and encouraging others to speak up about what happened to their son with their own children. They are also pushing for age restrictions to be introduced to TikTok, which would require social media users to provide identification to create and use an account, as well as age restrictions on purchasing drugs like Benadryl.