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Rome (dpa) - The death of a ten-year-old, presumably as an Internet test of courage at Tiktok, causes mourning and heated debates in Italy.
According to media reports in Palermo, Sicily, little Antonella had strangled herself unconscious at home with a belt.
After a sister discovered the girl, the family rushed her to the hospital on Wednesday evening.
There the doctors fought, but then had to determine brain death, as a spokeswoman for the hospital "Di Cristina" confirmed on Friday.
A data protection regulator asked Tiktok to control the age of users more closely.
The judiciary and protection of minors started investigations into the circumstances of death.
The media wrote that the girl wanted to take part in a so-called blackout challenge or hanging challenge on the Tiktok video app.
In such a dangerous action, participants strangle themselves and film it with their smartphones.
The pictures show them in social networks.
The police are investigating Antonella's cell phone, wrote the newspaper “La Repubblica” on Friday.
According to the information, the parents agreed to an organ donation by their daughter.
According to the Adnkronos news agency, a Tiktok spokesman said: "We are ready for the relevant authorities to help with the investigation."
The company tries to stop calls for life-threatening behavior.
On Friday evening, Italy's data protection regulator, a body of parliament, asked Tiktok to immediately block accounts where the age of user data has not been ascertained with certainty.
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The mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando, wrote on Facebook that he and probably the whole city were "in shock".
A debate about young people's relationships with smartphones and social networks is long overdue - “especially in times of the pandemic, which has pushed us more and more into digital communication”.
In the media, psychologists and youth experts called on Friday to consider tightening the law on how children use cell phones and social networks.
There have been "challenges" on the internet for years and in many countries.
The challenges are sometimes fun, sometimes extremely dangerous.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210123-99-138596 / 2
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Mayor of Palermo, Orlando, on Facebook;
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Report in the newspaper La Repubblica;
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Press release from data protectionists;
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