Teenager suffocates to death while recording TikTok video

In an unfortunate incident, a 17-year-old boy from the Pirganj area of Kolkata’s Malda district passed away while attempting to record a music video that involved risky stunts.

The deceased boy, identified as Karim Sheikh, was tied to an electric pole with a plastic bag covering his face, where a video of him trying to escape from the same was being recorded by his friends. When he started having trouble breathing, his friends apparently concluded that he was performing for the video and continued shooting the incident. When the teenager failed to respond after a couple of minutes, the other boys realized what had happened and rushed to rescue him. But Karim had already died of asphyxiation. A case of unnatural death has reportedly been registered by the police and an investigation is currently underway.  

The Internet has been one of the most exciting and powerful inventions of the century, owing to the fact that it quite literally provides access to information about almost every aspect of life. Although social media and video-sharing websites such as YouTube and TikTok have had a positive impact on people in terms of entertainment, the adverse effects of the same are impossible to ignore. The “express yourself” video app that allows its users to share short clips of their talents/performances gained traction in India recently, with at least 20 million people from the country currently using the application.