What Is The Blue Whale Challenge And How Many Teenagers Have Died From Playing The Game?
A new online trend called the Blue Whale Challenge is goading young teens into killing themselves. The viral craze has reportedly been linked to 130 deaths in Russia and is starting to spread all over the world
The Blue Whale Challenge is a game believed to be started by an online social media group in which participants are encouraged to kill themselves. Members, most of which are young teenagers, sign up for the game by using certain hashtags and joining certain groups on social networking sites.
Once a player is in, a group administrator assigns daily tasks to members in a span of 50 days, according to The Sun.
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The tasks include horrific acts such as inflicting self-harm, watching horror movies and waking up at unusual hours at night. Every time a player completes a task, he/she must send a photo or video for proof. Each day, the tasks get more and more extreme. On the 50th day, players are told to kill themselves.
If a player refuses to commit suicide, the administrator will threaten to expose all the information acquired during the game or inflict harm on their loved ones.
Even though the game is thought to have originated in Russia, it has reportedly spread to other countries including Ukraine, Spain, Portugal, Argentina and France.
The first incident of a Blue Whale Challenge suicide surfaced in February this year when two friends, 15-year-old Yulia Konstantinova and 16-year-old Veronika Volkova, left notes on their respective social media pages saying "end." Konstantinova in particular posted a photo of a blue whale before she and Volkova jumped off the roof of their apartment, The Express Tribune reported.
A postman named Ilya Sidorov was arrested in Russia in June after he was alleged to be the one operating the sick suicide game. Sidorov confessed to coaxing members of an online death group into killing themselves. He is said to be responsible for the deaths of as many as 32 teens.
Sidorov is not the sole supervisor of the said game. Various online groups reportedly operate under the same scheme. The police in various countries are still in search of others who are linked to the said suicide groups. Countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States have issued memos to parents and students to prevent similar incidents from happening.
