Language Matters: Unintentional Strangulation, Strangulation Activity, and the “Choking Game”

A recent study reported that 82 American youths aged 6 to 19 years had died of unintentional strangling while “playing the choking game” from 1995 to 2007.¹ To that article's recommendations, we propose an additional recommendation to further curtail unintentional strangulation mortality. We propose referring to behaviors that might lead to death from unintentional strangulation as strangulation activity rather than playing the choking game.