Tik Tok Exposed: Fame, Fallout and Hidden Tragedy

What is TikTok and why is it so popular?

As you probably all know, in 2012, a man called Zhang Yiming created a new platform called TikTok. He never thought that it would grow to be so famous, however, now, just in 13 years, over a billion people are on this social media app.  TikTok is still growing with over 1.63 million people joining every 24 hours. It is expected that in less than 10 years, in 2030-2035, most of the world's population will be on TikTok. 

Another big question is, is TikTok more popular than other apps like Snapchat and Instagram? Well, let's find out. It was the most used and popular app from spring 2019, to summer 2021, and right now, in 2025, TikTok is the world's most downloaded app, as you can see in the photo. With Instagram being 1.60 billion users behind TikTok, and Temu 5.072 billion people behind, it shows how popular TikTok has become.

Tragic Trends

As established above, TikTok is the world's most popular social media. However, behind all the fun and inspiration, chaos and deep trauma lies. Cyber bullying, vanity, but worst of all, deaths have occurred. The main problem was the Blackout Challenge, or referred to as the choking game or the pass out challenge, where over 20 children died tragic deaths, ages ranging from as young as six, to teenagers, in only an 18 month period.

Well, what is the Blackout Challenge? This was a worldwide challenge on TikTok where you had to try and hold your breath until you fainted. I know what you're thinking, who would ever want to do such a thing? Well, there is no information on who started it and how it began, but how did it spread? On January the 21st, 2021, it was reported that a young 10 year old girl had tied a belt around her neck, just for a challenge on TikTok. Later that day, ANSA found her brain dead. After the girl's death, the news spread on CTV, HuffPost, PopBuzz, and HITC about her incident and the trend. Soon, more cases occurred of kids attempting the Blackout Challenge and tragically losing their life. Users began uploading videos about stopping it, but it was no use.

Furthermore, there were many other challenges resulting in deaths, including the Benadryl Challenge, the Boat Jumping Challenge, and the Milk Crate Challenge. Well, let's start simple, the Boat Jumping Challenge. This encouraged people to jump off boats when they were travelling at a high speed. Several severe and fatal injuries have been sustained from the harsh impact of the water. Next, the Benadryl Challenge was taking excessive amounts of the allergy medication Benadryl, which induced hallucinations. Jacob Stevens attempted it, and in 2022, at just 13 years old, died from an overdose of this drug. Another dangerous trend was the Milk Crate Challenge, where users attempted to climb large stacks of  milk crates, often falling off them and receiving many injuries like broken wrists, dislocated shoulders, and even spinal cord fractures.

In conclusion, horrific challenges, dares, and trends have slithered into TikTok, and they need to be stopped! Children can't keep losing their innocent lives because of a stupid challenge on social media. Sadly, people keep risking their lives, hoping to go viral, but when will people realise that life is precious? However, fortunately, awareness is spreading and the number of deaths are slowly decreasing, and hopefully in the coming years, TikTok will be a safe platform, where people can express themselves, and go viral, without having to be harmed.

Cyberbullying Catastrophe

What is cyberbullying, and does it happen on TikTok?

Well, the top 10 apps that have the most cyberbullying (ranging from 10-least amount, to 1-most amount) are: Kik, Reddit, YouTube, Discord, WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, and finally the top 3, TikTok, Snapchat and first, Instagram. However, the one we will be talking about is TikTok. Can you guess how many cyberbullies there are on TikTok? There are around less than 1 billion cyberbullies, with 64% being children! But how can we stop it? Well, in my opinion, it is very simple… don’t be cruel and heartless, learn from your mistakes, and always put yourself in another's shoes!

Did you know?

1. An estimated 35 people have died doing TikTok challenges

2.  TikTok was once called Musical.ly

3.  Tik-Tok is available in more than 150  countries 

4. TikTok was downloaded almost 115 million times in march 2020 alone

5. TikTok is called Douyin in China

6. Around 41% of TikTok users are between the age of 16-24

7. TikTok is banned in India

8. The average time spent on TikTok per day is 95 minutes

9. TikTok has over 1.5 billion active monthly users daily

10. TikTok is banned in more than 12 countries