Ofcom warns TikTok it will 'take action' if firm falls short on child safety measures after driving stunt claims 12 lives in bid for likes
Over the same week, 12 people have been killed in 'wrong-way driving' incidents as dangerous driving trends increase in popularity on social media
Online safety regulator Ofcom has warned it will ‘take action’ against TikTok if it fails to comply with child safety measures after a dangerous driving stunt has resulted in 12 deaths over the past week.
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This comes after an increasing number of wrong-way driving videos have appeared online, prompting the government to urge TikTok and other social media firms to remove the content.
Pc Matthew Blades, 37, and Pc Tom Clough, 38, were killed when a vehicle being pursued by police for driving the wrong way along a dual carriageway collided with their marked armed response vehicle.
Cole Robert Worthy, 17, Theo Rae, 17, Makai Saddington, 18, and 23-year-olds Michael Robert Cahill and Jacob Matusiak were also pronounced dead at the scene in Teesside on Saturday morning.
This comes the same week as five teenagers driving the wrong way were killed in Ireland after their car collided with another vehicle.
Responding to the worrying trend, Ofcom said: “Under the Online Safety Act, platforms must minimise children’s exposure to violent material and content promoting dangerous challenges.
Read more: Glorifying dangerous driving ‘truly reprehensible’, says PM after A66 crash
“In July, we launched an investigation into TikTok’s compliance with its child safety duties, and we’ve shown we’ll take action if evidence suggests companies are falling short.”
TikTok has been approached for comment.
It has also been revealed that one of the men killed in the A66 crash was awaiting trial over alleged crimes against police officers.
According to court records, 18-year-old Saddington was accused of assaulting a police officer and of causing racially aggravated alarm or distress to another in Middlesbrough on June 9.
He later appeared before Teesside Magistrates’ Court on July 17 charged with the offences and was awaiting trial.
Saddington was also reportedly involved in filming dangerous driving in TikTok videos before the fatal crash on Saturday.
On Monday, Defence Minister Luke Pollard told LBC that social media companies should remove dangerous driving content from their platforms.
“We've already spoken to social media companies telling them to take down that type of content,” Pollard told LBC's Tom Swarbrick on Monday morning.
“It's important we work with them to remove that type of content online, because while it exists online, while that type of dangerous driving is celebrated and able to be shared with an algorithm that frequently will serve that type of content to more people, then I'm afraid we're at the risk of encouraging other people to undertake that dangerous driving, that incredibly dangerous behaviour on our roads.”
Seven people, including two police officers, died following a car crash on Saturday. The fatal incident occurred when a car speeding the wrong direction down the A66 near Middlesbrough crashed into a Cleveland Police vehicle that was on the correct side of the road.
One of the men involved in the crash, 23-year-old Jacob Mantusiak, posted a video in May to social media in which he appears to be speeding with the police in pursuit.
This video was part of a wider social media trend of dangerous driving footage being shared across the internet, which Pollard says the government is trying to crack down on.
“My thoughts go out to the families of the victims of that crash. And I think seeing police officers run towards danger to keep us safe, to put on that uniform every day, knowing that the risks that they take by wearing that uniform.
"Everyone who serves should know that they have the support of the Government but the support of the nation as well,” Pollard told LBC.
“I hope the social media companies will respond to that with real clarity of removing that content and adjusting their algorithms so it's not shared. I think it's pretty obvious that this type of content is in no one's best interest, and certainly social media companies can be part of the solution by removing it from their platforms.”
Pollard told the press that the Government will be using the powers of the new Online Safety Act to compel social media platforms to take down videos celebrating dangerous driving.
According to TikTok, content that causes physical harm, including dangerous driving, is prohibited, and the company works to remove videos and accounts that break its policies against posting dangerous activities.
Meta has been contacted for comment.
Cleveland police and crime commissioner Matt Storey stressed that there is no information at this time indicating that the five men, including a 17-year-old, in the car which struck the police officers were filming content for social media at the time of the crash.
Storey said: “Without being able to say whether [filming videos] was…involved in this case, it’s absolutely idiotic for anybody to be doing anything other than being completely 100% focused on the road when they’re behind the wheel of a vehicle.
“And for somebody to be filming themselves or doing anything like that is absolutely ridiculous, and of course nobody should be doing that.
“And it is a worrying situation if that’s becoming more prevalent because it is incredibly dangerous.
“As I say, it may not have been the case in this situation; we don’t know, but anybody who is doing that, wherever it might be, is absolutely wrong to do so.”