Blue Whale is a twisted suicide challenge that incites vulnerable teens into killing themselves. The dangerous game has been linked to at least 130 teen deaths across Russia and police and with the recent death in Mumbai, it seems that the horrifying game has caught up with some kids in the city. In the Blue Blue Whale Challenge, a group of administrators or a certain curator gives a participant a task to complete daily and that too for a period of 50 days the final of which is the participant committing suicide. The participants are expected to share photos of the challenges and that looks highly ridiculous. Each task also needs to be photographed or videotaped, so the administrators have proof of completion and authenticity, including the final suicide. Children should be guided properly. Do not create fear of fighter plane hitting or blue whale killing you.
The curator selects teens through a personal chat. They ask children if they really want to begin the game and are warned that the only way to achieve victory is by dying. If the player persists, then the challenges begin. Once the game begins and if the participant is hesitant, the curators threaten’ to kill these kids loved ones by making them believe they have details of their friends and families and force them into continuing the game. Then, as the kids go further, these curators obtain pictures and secrets which they can use to their benefit. Internet is posing problem for children to take the wrong path. Moreover the valuable time is diverted for an unproductive cause. Web is for enriching the knowledge and inculcating good habits but taking up the right path in the right direction is the need of the hour.
Social media and websites provide good insight to various issues concerning daily life. But the children are carried away by such suicidal games in a jittery and think that is the way of life in the web world. These daily tasks start off easy and make you to listening to certain genres of music, waking up at odd hours, watching a horror movie, among others, and then slowly escalate to carving out shapes on one’s skin, self-mutilation and eventually suicide. There is still uncertainty over how a participant plays the game. Parents must keep a strict vigil on children while they use their android phones, PCs and laptops.
Nickhil Mani
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
