TikTok trend came to the fore with the death of a little girl this time. The popular platform, which has been mentioned with the news of banning from time to time in some countries, is now restricted to underage users with a news from Italy.
A 10-year-old girl living in Palermo died while attempting a challenge in TikTok, according to the report in Euronews, which gave little detail about the incident. After the incident, which was immediately handled by the Italian government, a temporary restriction came in the country until February 15, 2021.
The number of people who lost their lives is increasing with the TikTok trend: An investigation has been launched for TikTok
The trends and challenges launched on popular platforms such as TikTok and Instagram can reach really dangerous proportions. We saw the last example of this in Italy. The little girl who shot a video from her TikTok account to join a popular trend died at the age of 10. Thereupon, TikTok, which had already captured the dark clouds in Europe, was restricted for a while in Italy.
According to the statement made by the Italian Data Protection Authority (GPDP), there are some difficulties in determining the age of users who are members of TikTok. For example, young people who are not adults can mark their age older and use the application without any restrictions while registering for the application. Announcing that it has started work to prevent this, GPDP restricts TikTok in the first place after the painful incident, albeit temporarily.
Licia Ronzulli, the head of the childhood and adolescence commission in Italy, said in a statement she made on her Twitter account that the decision was both timely and correct. Emphasizing that the digital security of children should be protected, Ronzulli says that the necessary work should be done to prevent the incident in Palermo from happening again.
Giusta e tempestiva la decisone del #GarantePrivacy nei confronti di #TikTok. La sicurezza dei minori va tutelata a ogni costo e non si può, come accaduto a #Palermo, consentire a un social di essere complice di un suicidio!#blackoutchallenge
— Licia Ronzulli (@LiciaRonzulli) January 22, 2021
In the statement made by the Palermo Public Prosecutor’s Office, it was announced that the girl died due to drowning and that TikTok started its investigation on the grounds that she “provoked suicide”.
Before this incident happened, TikTok’s record in Italy was not very good. In December, the GPDP charged TikTok for not paying attention to the protection of children. He was already clueless on the grounds that users under the age of 13 can easily enter the platform, on the grounds that they have a weak policy on “age restriction”. TikTok is expected to address this issue after the incident.
