Since the last few days, social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram are abuzz with discussions over the Blue Whale Challenge, also called the Blue Whale Game. The challenge looks anything but funny, but there seem to be a lot of teens actually taking up the challenge, which encourages self harm, even ending suicide. Many have also been posting images that show a whale carved on their forearms.
The game's title is derived from blue whales that are often believed to see themselves stranded on beaches in a bid to commit suicide.
What is the Blue Whale Challenge?
The challenge is said to have started as a social media game, in which a self-harm group encourages teens to commit suicide. The group administrator assigns daily tasks to the members over a period of 50 days. While the tasks initially involve watching horror movies and self harm, they get creepier by the day eventually encouraging the member to commit suicide on the 50th day.
While there are numerous posts online with the hashtag #bluewhalechallenge, the trend first made news when a Russian schoolgirl posted an image of a blue whale on Instagram and committed suicide by jumping off a 14-storey building. She was accompanied by her best friend, who jumped along with her, reported The Sun.
While the challenge is reportedly also becoming a menace in the US, UK, Brazil and France – the French police have been tweeting warnings against the game and have asked teens as well as parents to be careful – most of the cases that have surfaced seem to be Russia-centric.
Philipp Budeikin – the creator
Meanwhile, it has now been reported that the creator of the challenge himself is a Russian. According to Metro UK, Philipp Budeikin has admitted that he created the game and convinced about 16 girls to end their lives.
"Do something beautiful at least once in your life, it is so good to die young. Life is awful, it will not get better. You are rare, a selected one," is what he told his victims. However, Budeikin, 21, seems to have no remorse and instead explained that he was "cleansing the society" of "biological waste" who were "happy to die."
Currently lodged in the Kresty Jail in St Petersburg, Budeikin was asked if he really did drive these girls to suicide and he said: "Yes. I truly was doing that. Don't worry, you'll understand everything. Everyone will understand." Revealing that he even got tonnes of love letters from young girls he added: "They were dying happy. I was giving them what they didn't have in real life: warmth, understanding, connections."
