What Is The Blue Whale Challenge And How to Protect Your Loved Ones

Imran Hussain Al Ameen

Jorhat

The Blue Whale is neither fish nor fowl but a ‘killer’ online game of inflating proportions that nobody has reliably encountered. It is a sequence of online ‘dares’ that participants must progressively engage in to get ahead. These include etching a blue whale on your skin and jumping off buildings. There have been at least three reported suicides in India of youths who, according to media reports, were playing or had searched for the game online. Importantly, police officials have so far claimed that there is no evidence that these youths took their lives following instructions from the game. There is also no report of authorities actually encountering this game online in India. This, however, hasn’t stopped Members of Parliament from demanding that Facebook and Microsoft work to remove all online links to the game. The origins of this game and reportage surrounding it have been in Central Asian countries, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia.

How did it come about?

Fact-checker website, Snopes.com, reports that the claim that the “blue whale” suicide game (named for how whales occasionally beach en masse and die) had resulted in a wave of suicides appears to have originated with a “misinterpretation” of a May 2016 story from the Russian site Novaya Gazeta. That article linked dozens of suicides of children in Russia during a six-month span, who were all part of a gaming community, on social media network VKontakte (VK.com). But subsequent investigations by other Russian news agencies showed that there were online communities or suicide groups on VK.com, but again nothing that linked an entity called ‘Blue Whale’ and a flurry of suicides.

Why does it matter?

Rina Palenkovoy was a Russian teenager who had posted a picture of herself on VK.com and then committed suicide. However, there were online communities like ‘Sea of Whales’ and f57 — all hosted on VK.com — that promoted role-playing games with tasks to be carried out in the real world. None of these, however, seems to require jumping off buildings but they do veer towards extolling suicide. Promoters of the website say their aim was to draw visits and advertising numbers and deny wanting to encourage minors to commit suicide. They also used iconography around Palenkovoy as promotional material.

On November 14, 2016, police outside Moscow arrested 21-year-old Filipp Budeikin on suspicion of being an organiser of a Blue Whale “death group.” Budeikin, according to Radio Liberty, said he was being questioned by the police. He seemed to suggest that he had incited some groups of minors to commit suicide but translations of his Russian interviews, into English, are shifty. Authorities said Budeikin was suspected of complicity in 15 suicides, but according to his lawyer, nothing has stuck. It is from here on that the Blue Whale phenomenon became truly global. The hype surrounding Blue Whale reveals how disconnected events can be clubbed together to create myths that spawn intriguing narratives and blitz across the globe via social media.

What next?

The popular belief — which has driven parents and legislators in many countries to ask for a ban — that the game induces the player to commit suicide is markedly false. Suicide-promotion forums predate the Internet and popular music and literature have abounded with artists and writers who have condoned self-harm and suicide. These include William Burroughs, author of The Naked Lunch, heavy metal icons Marilyn Manson and Ozzy Osborne and Kurt Kobain, the ultra-nihilistic frontman of grunge group Nirvana, who fatally shot himself. Thousands of their living fans walk this earth. Further, Russia and several Central Asian countries top the list of countries of the world with the highest suicide rates. Why India should be worried is because the rates of undetected depression, especially among teenagers, is high in the country. This stems from a general neglect of mental health for years and unsurprisingly, India too ranks amo

Prevention and care for victims :

In today’s world, it is next to impossible to completely stay clear of cyber threats. It is also not possible to maintain surveillance on your child’s online presence all the time. So, it is important to not only be educated about the dangers your child may face, but also talk to them about how they can detect these threats and protect themselves from becoming victims.

The first thing any parent can do to protect their children from cyber bullying is to educate children about digital safety and how to use the Internet safely and wisely. Studies have shown the trend of cyber bullying differs in boys and girls.

Schools can also do an important part in discouraging cyber bullying. Since many cases have proven that more often than not, the bully and the victim know each other, and in many instances are acquaintances or schoolmates, promoting strong positive relationships with fellow students and teachers becomes very important. Encouraging bystander to report any abuse is also very important to curb cyber bullying.

Being involved with your child is a must. Talk to them about what cyber bullying is and the different threats that are out there. They should also be taught not to bully others online. These days most gadgets come equipped with parental controls, which can be set according to age and need. At the end, it’s all about being aware and making your children aware.

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."