What Is The Blue Whale Challenge And How To Protect Your Loved Ones
"We counted 130 (!). Suicides of children that occurred
in Russia from November 2015 to April 2016 - almost all of them were members of
the same groups on the Internet", wrote Galina Mursalieva in the Russian
publication Novaya Gazeta in an article titled ' Groups of death. 18+'
published on May 2016.
Mursalieva pointed fingers at certain groups in Russia's
most popular social network, VK.com, for instigating suicide among teenagers.
" They work with the knowledge of psychology, telling the girls that they
are "fat", and the guys that they are "losers" in this
world. Because there is another world, and there they are - the
"chosen", wrote Mursalieva.
However, the Novaya Gazeta report was highly criticized at
the time of its publication, citing it is ridiculous that Novaya Gazeta arrived
at their conclusion based on the fact that several teenagers from the same
social media group had taken their own lives.
In fact, other publications such as Meduza argued saying it
is more reasonable to assume that depressed or suicidal teenagers are simply
drawn to the same social media groups, not that the groups were causing them to
commit suicide. As a result, the report never received the attention it
deserved. What the world witnessed was a year in which teenagers across the
globe committed suicide as a result of an internet game - the Blue Whale
Challenge.
On July 26 this year, Manoj, a 16-year-old teenager from
Kerala committed suicide in suspicious circumstances. An investigation into his
death and his mother's revelations led to the conclusion that he committed
suicide after playing the online game Blue Whale. It was reported that he ended
his life after allegedly completing 50 tasks of this deadly game.
In following weeks, several other teen suicides were
reported in connection with Blue Whale Challenge, as well several suicide
attempts that were thwarted as a result of last minute intervention. The
governments of both Kerala and Maharashtra have asked the Union government to
take strong measures against this online game, while the Delhi High Court
earlier today expressed concerns over children allegedly committing suicide playing
the Blue Whale Challenge.
So what is this Blue Whale Challenge, and how can we protect
our loved ones from this suicidal trap?
The history of the Blue Whale Challenge
According to early reports, the Blue Whale Challenge began
in Russia in 2013 in "F57", one of the so-called "death
group" of the VK social network. The game consists of a series of tasks
assigned to players by a curator over a 50-day period, with the final challenge
demanding the player to commit suicide. The term "Blue Whale" is derived
from the phenomenon of beached whales, which is linked to suicide.
The source of current frenzy started with the suicide of a
16- year old Siberian girl called Rina Palenkova on November 23, 2015, reports
Quartz . She laid herself in front of a train to commit suicide. Pictures of
Rina's body, who was an active member of the F57 group, went viral in Russia,
making the group notorious. As a result, more and more attention was being
drawn to the F57 group, and intrigued teens began to join.
On this backdrop Galina Mursalieva's article was published
in Novaya Gazeta on May 2016, stating the group to have directly involved in
over 100 suicides in Russia.
Who are behind the Blue Whale game?
Earlier this year, 21-year-old Philipp Budeikin, a former psychology
student, claimed that he invented the game. According to Budeikin, the purpose
of the game was to "clean" the society by pushing to suicide those he
deemed as having no value. Philipp Budeikin told the Russian press that his
victims were "biological waste" and he was "cleansing
society".
Budeikin is currently being held at Kresty Prison in St
Petersburg for charges of inciting at least 16 teenage girls to kill themselves
by taking part in his "game", reports BBC . However, in reality, he
is not the only organizer and the BBC reports more people are being looked for
in connection with these so-called "death groups".
The game cannot be stopped, here is why:
The issue of banning the game was raised in both Kerala and
Maharashtra legislative assemblies, as well as in the Rajya Sabha. However, the
Blue Whale Challenge is not a game that can be downloaded from an app store or
played at a website. That is the biggest challenge when it comes to dealing
with this game.
According to Udbhav Tiwari from Centre for Internet and
Society, "since there is no application or one specific website for the
challenge, it can't really be banned - not unless you completely ban the
internet," reports PTI. Efforts by various law enforcement agencies and
media organizations to locate the game have ended in failure because of this.
Driven by a series of hashtags connected with the game, the curators apparently
spot their victims based on their posts on different online forums such as VK
and Instagram.
"The administrators of the challenge use different
online forums to reach out to their victims. It can be Instagram, Facebook,
WhatsApp or any other online forum," Tiwari said to PTI. A journalist from
Kyrgyzstan's NB Bishkek writes that he found the game by registering on
Instagram as a teenage girl, and then making "a couple of naive posts,
depressive photos" and specific tags. "After a day, they knocked on
my face. - Are you in Game?," writes the journalist.
How can you protect your loved ones?
Anu, the mother of Manoj, said that he visited cemeteries in
the night and went to the beach alone, reports Malayala Manorama . He had also
drawn on his wrist with a compass, and all these indicate that he had been
playing the game.
One way to make sure you protect your loved ones is to look
for these signs from the challenges. Some of the 50 challenges given by the
administrator include getting up at 4 am, watching horror videos, standing on
the top roof edge, and carving letters on arms and legs with compass or razor.
However, Galina Mursalieva pointed out in her article that "the parents of
the deceased children simply did not notice any changes."
UK's National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Children identifies most common signs to watch out for, which are:
children becoming very secretive, especially about what they
are doing online
spending a lot of time on the internet and social media
switching screens on their device when approached
withdrawn or angry after using the internet or sending text
messages
have lots of new phone numbers or email addresses on their
device.
If you spot these signs and are suspicious, then the Child
Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, a UK government agency, points out
that it is important to have a calm and open conversation, rather than adopting
a strict punishment based approach.
Speaking to BBC , Tony Neate, chief executive of UK-based
advice group, Get Safe Online, said the dialogue was essential for addressing
issues of peer pressure if a child is "acting strangely". "It
will allow them to take a step back, away from the pressures," he added.
Neate says this will help the children to realize that it is "not something
they have to, or should, be taking part in."
