A 13-year-old boy from Southern California was found dead in his room after likely partaking in social media’s ‘blackout challenge.’
13-year-old Nnamdi Ohaeri, Jr. known by friends and family as ‘Deuce,’ was found dead on the morning of February 3 by his parents.
Though he spent the previous evening with his family, watching Kendrick Lamar “sweeping all the categories” at the Grammys, Deuce’s parents believe he took part in a social media challenge before bedtime.
Initially, the boy’s death appeared to be a suicide, but his parents knew their son was looking forward to the future. They began investigating, asking questions to friends and loved ones. Soon, the parents discovered that Deuce likely tried a trend that causes individuals to pass out.
Deuce wasn’t allowed access to social media inside his home.
Similar to the ‘blackout challenge,’ where participants hold their breath until they doze off, Deuce appeared to have lost consciousness after experimenting.
When the 13-year-old’s parents found him unresponsive in his bedroom the morning after, his mom performed CPR while his dad sought help from the neighbors.
Deuce’s parents reveal he didn’t have access to social media on his phone
Following Deuce’s death, his parents said they felt immense guilt, not knowing if they were too strict with their social media rules for their son, as he had firm parental controls on his cell phone.
Deuce’s dad said he’s always been “mindful of influences and talking about, ‘Don’t do drugs and make good decisions.’ But we don’t talk about not following social media trends or playing social media games and maybe we need to.
TikTok: brooklyndezoDeuce and his family.
“I’m going through the Rolodex of guilt now like, ‘Did we check in more? Should I have not been as firm four years ago?’”
Deuce is one of many young individuals who have died from trends like the blackout challenge. In 2021, 10-year-old Nylah Anderson died from trying the blackout challenge. During the same year, a 12-year-old boy died from the same causes.
TikTok, where many social media users have found instances of the trend, has since been sued by the families of four teens who died from the dangerous challenge.