Even though it has been reported that the people allegedly linked with the Blue Whale Challenge have been arrested – Philipp Budeikin has been in jail since May and a Russian teenage girl said to be the mastermind was arrested at the end of August – more and more teens, especially in India are said to be committing suicide.
The newest case comes from the Damoh district of Madhya Pradesh where a 16-year-old boy committed suicide on Saturday night, by jumping in front of a train. The incident was caught on a CCTV camera installed in a nearby building.
The Damoh Kotwali police station got the information of the suicide on Sunday morning and is now investigating the case. "Prima facie it seems a suicide case. The boy hailed from Damoh's Bada Pul area and his father works at Damoh Janpad Panchayat office," station officer Pradeep Soni told the Hindustan Times.
Friends of the 11th standard student told the police that he had been playing the Blue Whale Game, even though his family has rejected these claims and said that they had warned the boy of the online game. "The family members said he had assured them that he will not play any such game," Damoh superintendent of police Vivek Agarwal told the daily.
"However we have seized the boy's mobile phone. As its keypad is locked, the phone has been sent to Bhopal for analysis by a cyber forensic expert," he added.
The Blue Whale Challenge has become a menace with numerous teenagers taking their lives as part of the game. According to the results of Google Trends, India was the third country that searched for the Blue Whale Challenge online in the last 12 months and more people have googled the game in the last one month. While India may be third, in terms of cities globally, internet users in Kolkata searched the game the most, reported the Times of India.
The game has become such a serious issue that the West Bengal government is mulling over making a few changes to its school syllabus and including a separate chapter on "Responsible use of Internet."
"The initiative is just at a proposal stage. State education department will consult with experts on how this subject can be introduced as a separate chapter and what would be contents of the chapter. If everything goes according to plan, the separate chapter will be introduced from the next academic year from January," a senior state government official told HT. Until then, student workshops will be organised to raise awareness.
Meanwhile, it was earlier said that the creator of the game was a Russian named Philipp Budeikin who had reportedly also admitted to have created the game and convinced about 16 girls to end their lives. Even as the 24-year-old is currently lodged at the Kresty Jail in St Petersburg, it was reported last week that the mastermind was, in fact, a 17-year-old Russian girl, who was arrested from the Khabarovsk Krai region of Russia.
Russian state investigators said the girl was, in fact, a former player of the game but did not finish the challenge, and hence ended up being the admin for this game.
