Current Affairs - MAHAMAG Magazine beyond boundaries

We lost our senses infront of Blue Whale..!!

Games are about to entertain us, to make us stress free and more relaxed. What if game became the reason for our stress? Yes, Blue Whale game has turned out to be the reason for stress for most of the parents around the world.

The Blue Whale game or Blue Whale challenge is believed to be a suicide game wherein a group of administrators or a certain curator gives a participant a task to complete daily-for a period of 50 days- the final of which is the participant committing suicide. Participants are expected to share photos of the challenges/task completed by them.

These daily tasks start off easy such as listening to certain genres of music, waking up at odd hours, watching a horror movie and slowly escalate to carving out shapes on one’s skin, self-mutilation and eventually suicide.

Over the past few months, the game has been blamed for the deaths of over hundreds of young people. This isn’t a game you could download from an app store. Users might download an APK sent by an administrator, or by clicking a link on social media platforms such as Instagram or Facebook.

While deaths in many countries are being attributed to the game, independent verification is yet unavailable. The links are usually claimed by family or friends of the suicide victim who claim to have seen the victim perform the tasks. In Russia, over 130 deaths have been attributed to the game and at least two individuals have been arrested in connection. In Europe and America, both school authorities and police have begun issuing advisories to parents, making them aware of the game and urging them to be vigilant. India has reported at least five deaths. Through a letter dated August 11, 2017 the government directed internet majors to immediately remove the links of the dangerous game.

Games are about to entertain us, to make us stress free and more

relaxed.What if game became the reason for our stress? Yes, Blue Whale game has turned out to be the reason for stress for most of the parents around the world.

The question everyone is asking is why a teenager- or anyone else-would want to take part in a game of death or even take up such

challenges. Experts suggest that the gamers’ victims are of impressionable age, and seeking “validation from the world around”.

There have been reports that those who try to quit some way through the game are threatened. A correspondent of the US government funded Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty who signed up for the challenge posing as a 15 year old was told “they will come after you when the undercover reporter asked what happened to those who quit”.

Philipp Budeikin is behind this death game. The Russian says his victims are “biological waste” and believes he is “cleansing society”.

The game got its name from one of the first disturbing challenges of the game, where players were asked to draw a blue whale on a piece of paper, and then told to carve the whale onto their body.

Budeikin denied reports that he and his game were directly responsible for over 130 deaths, stating that he had only directly influenced 17 deaths. He said others had communicated with him and committed suicide later, but without any direct influence from him.

It is sad that a society which is able to identify what is right and wrong for them is blindly following these kinds of games. Not only the teenagers, the adults too are going after this game faking their identity. Which means, those who wanted to lead the younger generation to the right way is also busy playing this death game?

Suicide prevention organization are issuing advice to parents about the game’s dangers, encouraging them to remain vigilant.

In March, Romanian Minister of Internal Affairs, Carmen Dan expressed her deep concerns about the phenomenon. Mayor of Bucharest, Gabriela Fiera described the game as extremely dangerous.

In Brazil, in response to the game a designer and a publicity agent Sao Paulo created a movement called Baleia Rosa (Pink Whale) which became viral and relied on the collaboration of hundreds of volunteers. The movement is based on positive tasks that value life and combat depression. Also in Brazil, SandroSanfelice created the movement CapivaraAmarela (Yellow Capybara) which proposes to combat the Blue Whale game and guide people seeking some kind of help.

In Belo Horizonte and Recife Metropolitan area in Brazil, many schools promoted lectures to talk about the Blue Whale game. The police specialized in High Technology Crime Repression Piaui is preparing a digital primer to warn young people about the dangers of

In May 2017, authorities of the Mexican State of Michoacán issued an alert warning about the possibility of the Blue Whale game to invade the country.

At the same time, Tencent, China’s largest internet service portal closed 12 suspicious Blue Whale related network groups on its social networking platform QQ, as the number of this kind of groups is on the rise. Kenya has banned the game after a teen suicide.

‘Only a small percentage of teens facing depression, especially if isolated from supportive friends and family, are known to venture into these groups but the effect of multiple visits can be aggravating to their behavior’, says Child Psychologist Michele Ybarra.

Socio-political activist from India and an advocate of the High Court of Kerala, Adv. John Joseph has given his views about the circumstances that lead our children to the dangerous computer games such as the Blue Whale. The focus of the human life has undergone a vast change during the past 3 – 4 decades. Money place a key role in life and that as affected the outlook of a large number of people. Amazing of money and assets is considered to be the success in life and smartness is interpreted as capability to amaze wealth. Philosophy, no more, influences most of the people. Instant happiness and pleasure are matters of interest for many. Parenting and teaching are influenced by the above described trend. Parents and teachers are no more capable of influencing or guiding the children. Children go their own way. Computers offer them opportunities to find out instant happiness and pleasure. But, as they progress in the direction, they get derailed as traps are added in the games systematically. Perhaps, nobody could be blamed for the situation other than those who offer the games. But, parents, teachers, friends, etc. may try to avoid this situation by cautiously and carefully interacting with the children. Proper molding of the personality of the children is the best way to keep them away from such dangers. Parenting and teaching have to be remodeled to meet the challenges

15 year old Veronika and Yulia Konstantinova were the first victims of the game. They jumped from the roof of a 14 storey block of flats. Before jumping, Veronika wrote on her social media page, “Sense is lost…End”.

Now it seems like the entire world has lost their sense. All are jumping into the death trap even though they know that they are wasting their life. When will we wake up?? When will the society learn to identify between black and white?? Wake up people..!! Sarika