Teen suffers brain injury and nearly bites through own tongue after viral playground 'challenge'

A horrified mother is raising awareness about the dangers of viral social media trends after an online challenge left her son unconscious for 20 seconds.

Back in July, Amy Howson received a phone call which every parent dreads, her 13-year-old son had fallen unconscious while playing with friends in the local park.

"Lucas had gone out and played with his friends," she recalled.

"I got a phone call from my sister who's the same age as Lucas and she said that Luca had been in a fight... She said Lucas is on the floor, unconscious and he's all cut up."

When Amy arrived at the park, she discovered her son Lucas covered in blood with no recollection of what had happened to him.

Teenager Lucas passed out for 20 seconds while doing the 'tap out' challenge with friends in a park (Kennedy News and Media)

It was only after talking to witness in the park that she discovered her son and his friends had been taking part in a viral trend known as the 'tap out' challenge.

What is the 'tap out' challenge?

Also known as the 'blackout challenge', the trend involves putting a person in a headlock and squeezing their neck until the point of passing out.

It's believed the challenge went viral on social media platforms such as TikTok and is one of many potentially harmful trends which has causing concern amongst parents.

The dangerous trend has been thrust into the mainstream back in recent years, following reports of several teenagers dying after allegedly taking part in the challenge, prompting several grieving parents to sue the platform earlier in the year (per BBC).

According to TikTok, the app does not allow content that shows or promotes dangerous behaviour and they work to proactively identify, review, and remove content that violates their policies.

A search for phrases such as 'tapout challenge' and 'blackout challenge' reveals they have been blocked by the app.

The teenager had nearly severed his tongue after falling down and hitting his chin (Kennedy News and Media)

Fortunately for Amy, her son Lucas was unconscious for no longer than 20 seconds. When the healthcare assistant took her son to hospital, it was revealed that he'd nearly severed his tongue after hitting his chin on the ground.

The teenager was also suffering from amnesia after hitting his head.

Her son has since been able to make a full recovery, however Amy is keen to raise awareness about the dangers of teenagers continuing to take part in dangerous challenges.

"When I asked him about it, he said he didn't want to get told off. The challenge is something that's going around," Amy explained

"He said 'we always do it'. He said everyone's doing it around school. They'd been play-fighting, taking turns to get each other in headlocks. I told him that could've been fatal. I think he's seen it on social media."

Mum Amy now wants to raise awareness about dangerous social media trends (Kennedy News and Media)

She continued: "I think it's scared him. I said to him this is so dangerous and can't happen again. He could've lost his tongue.

"I think whoever's doing these challenges are very stupid. Don't try them. I know when you're a kid you think you're invincible."

TikTok maintains that it has technology to help identify potentially violent content and hashtags.

According to the platform, between January and March 2025, 99.8 percent of videos showing harmful content were removed proactively and 97.5 percent were removed within 24 hours.