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UK Boy, 12, Tragically Dies Attempting Squid Game Prank

Sebastian Cizman, 12, died at home after attempting a Squid Game-inspired choking prank. Police found related content on his phone.

UK Boy, 12, Tragically Dies Attempting Squid Game Prank
An impressionable boy died attempting to emulate a prank from a TV show.
  • A 12-year-old UK boy died attempting to recreate a Squid Game hanging prank at home
  • Sebastian was found unconscious during his brother’s First Holy Communion and later died
  • Police found Squid Game images on his phone and evidence of a choking challenge search
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A 12-year-old schoolboy from the UK has tragically died after apparently attempting to recreate a hanging scene from the Netflix series Squid Game as a prank. Sebastian Cizman was found dead at his family home in Glasshoughton, West Yorkshire, during his younger brother's First Holy Communion.

An inquest heard that Sebastian, described as a prankster by his friends, was playing in the garden with his cousins before he ventured inside the house, saying he was tired. It is believed he was attempting a dangerous online challenge that involves choking oneself until losing consciousness, a trend that has been linked to the tragic deaths of children worldwide.

According to a report in The Telegraph, Sebastian was a fan of the dystopian thriller show, with the police finding an image on his phone of a character from the show.

After finding Sebastian unconscious, his parents and paramedics attempted to resuscitate him, but he was pronounced dead at the hospital. Detectives investigating the case found he had viewed Squid Game on his smartphone and later searched for 'surviving choking alone' on YouTube.

Detective Sergeant, Paul Bayliss told the inquest hearing that Sebastian's interest in Squid Game, and the image found on his phone, coupled with his "prankster nature" provided a concrete hypothesis into his death.

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'These Platforms Don't Do Anything'

Sebastia's mother, Kasia Cizman, blamed the tech giants and called for urgent action against them for encouraging such dangerous content to be uploaded to their platforms and pushed to the feeds of innocent children.

"They should take the people who are promoting these challenges and put them in prison, so no other child dies. These platforms don't do anything. It is completely unchecked. They make money, and they don't care," said Sebastia's mother, Kasia Cizman.

"It's hard what I'm going to say, but I hope that the loss of my child is going to help some other children to understand. And for the people that run these social media platforms to do something, to stop it from happening."

As per Kasia, Sebastian, a self-taught classical pianist, had no history of self-harm, and he would have never knowingly risked his life.

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