By Eleanor Ovens,Howard Lloyd

Copyright walesonline

A teenage boy suffered a brain injury and nearly bit through his tongue when trying the viral ‘tap out’ trend. Amy Howson received a phone call on the evening of July 17 to say her son, Lucas, had fallen unconscious in the park while out with friends. Terrified, the mum-of-three raced to the park to find her 13-year-old covered in blood, with no recollection as to what had happened. After talking to witnesses, the 33-year-old found out that Lucas and his friends had been putting each other in headlocks, otherwise known as the ‘tap out’ challenge. The dangerous so-called ‘game’ involves holding a person in a chokehold and squeezing their neck until they nearly pass out – which has circulated on social media platforms such as TikTok. The trend was thrust into the spotlight in 2023 when a Scottish teenager died after taking part in the deadly challenge at school . Amy discovered that Lucas had fallen unconscious for 20 seconds and nearly severed his tongue after whacking his chin on the ground. The healthcare assistant rushed her son to hospital where doctors confirmed he had suffered amnesia due to trauma to his head. Now, Amy is determined on raising awareness of the dangers of social media trends after Lucas narrowly escaped serious injuries. Amy, who lives in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, said: “Lucas had gone out and played with his friends. He’s got a good set of mates. He’s quite independent. I got a phone call from my sister who’s the same age as Lucas and she said that Lucas had been in a fight. They’re very close. “She said Lucas is on the floor, unconscious and he’s all cut up. I jumped in my car and got a phone call from a woman at the park to say she was with Lucas and he’d bit through his tongue. (When I got to the park) he was crying, he had blood all over his face and all down his top. I was shaking asking what had happened. “He wasn’t making any sense. He kept repeating himself. He didn’t know where he was. He was very confused, which shocked me the most. He kept asking what had happened. There was no normal conversation. He kept forgetting that I had told him what happened.” After speaking with passers-by, Amy discovered that Lucas had been held in a headlock as part of a social media trend, but did not have the chance to ‘tap out’ before falling to the floor from standing height. Lucas was left covered in blood after hitting his chin on the floor and biting through most of his tongue. Amy said: “I was told he was unconscious for 20 seconds. His friends were all absolutely distraught. Luckily there were some first-aiders there. When I asked him about it, he said he didn’t want to get told off. The challenge is something that’s going around. “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. He’s not a naughty child, he’s got a good set of mates. You just don’t know with kids, they stumble across these videos and think they’ll try it.” Amy rushed Lucas to hospital where doctors confirmed he had suffered amnesia and cut through three quarters of his tongue. Luckily, Lucas has made a full recovery, but Amy insists better monitoring should be in place on social media to prevent children from watching these trends. Amy said: “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. These videos should definitely be reviewed.” 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. The app has created technology that alerts safety teams to sudden increases in violative content linked to hashtags to help detect potentially harmful trends. TikTok claims that between January – March 2025, of the videos that they removed that violated their dangerous activities and challenges policy, 99.8 per cent were removed proactively and 97.5 per cent were removed within 24 hours.