While natural disasters and accidents are already claiming several lives worldwide, an online game should ideally be the least of one's concerns, but that isn't the case with the evil Blue Whale Challenge. The latest prey seems to be a 19-year-old college student from Thirumangalam in Tamil Nadu.
Vignesh, a student of Mannar College in Madurai, committed suicide by hanging himself and the police have said that he had a carving of a whale and the words "Blue Whale" on his forearm. A note was also recovered which said: "Blue Whale- This is not a game but danger. Once you enter, you can never exit," reported India Today.
Meanwhile, Vignesh's friends told the police that the deceased had started using his phone very often, probably talking to the one assigning tasks and completing them.
Just a few days ago, the Tamil Nadu police had released a circular asking parents to keep an eye on children, especially teens and young adults, and monitor their internet usage as the Blue Whale Challenge creates menace worldwide.
While the challenge first made news in Russia – the creator Philipp Budeikin is a Russian as well – the online game has spread to numerous countries. India hasn't been spared as well, and according to Google Trends results, India is the 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.
In terms of cities globally, internet users in Kolkata searched the game the most, reported the Times of India. Kolkata is followed by San Antonio, Nairobi, Guwahati, Chennai, Bengaluru Mumbai, New Delhi, Howrah, and Paris. The most searched terms are "blue whale challenge game," "the whale game," "blue whale game download," "blue whale apk," and "blue whale suicide challenge."
Though internet users may have googled the game just to read more about it, the fact that numerous teens have taken their lives cannot be ignored.
On Sunday, the Blue Whale Challenge claimed the life of a 13-year-old in Uttar Pradesh's Hamirpur district. Parth Singh, a class six student of Jaipuria Public School, was found hanging in his bedroom in Maudaha village on Sunday, August 27, night and apparently committed suicide as part of the online game. The police said that Parth had his father's phone in his hand, in which the game was on. This was noticed when the body of the boy was being taken down.
The game's title is derived from blue whales that are often believed to strand themselves on beaches in a bid to commit suicide. The challenge is taken online and 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.
