Blue Whale Challenge, the recent internet trend has addicted the teenagers where they perform various dangerous acts at the behest of the administrator. It highlights our uneasy adjustment to a hyper-connected world and need for better cyber security. Blue Whale is only a single troubling piece of a much more pervasive problem involving the internet and suicides. The maximum number of suicide cases have been reported from Russia, and in India a couple of cases have been suspected. The Blue Whale is a hidden Challenge in the creepiest corners of the internet an “obstacle course” of 50 daily tasks that climaxes with a suggestion that the participant commit suicide on the last day of the competition. The Blue Whale activity spanning across 50 days often cause harm to the player, with the last step being to kill oneself. With the number of youngsters using social networking sites and online games on the rise, there is a need for awareness programmes with the help of the Education Department. Legal framework alone may not help to regulate such games especially when children are exposed to cyberspace that always may not have stops pertaining to age, location and other parameters. It is very important for the parents to communicate with their children and discuss what they are doing on their mobile phones and computers.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
