Blue Whale: Challenge is to end game which left Mumbai teen to commit suicide
On July 29, when a 14-year-old committed suicide by jumping off the terrace of a seven-storeyed building in Mumbai, India woke up to the existence of the "Blue Whale" – a challenge-based underground game that brainwashes people into inflicting pain upon themselves before eventually pushing them into taking their own lives.
"The Blue Whale", which originated in Russia, is a social media challenge game unlike other challenge-based games out there on the web: administrators of Blue Whale incite players to cause physical harm to themselves — even to commit suicide to complete tasks.
As per a report on news website Heavy, the challenge began by way of a YouTube video in which an anonymous instructor begins giving assignments. There are a total of 50 assignments that become increasingly serious over time. Though there has been some variance, most of the tasks are similar. Believe it or not, they include tasks self-harm and on the 50th day of the challenge, the participant is instructed to take his or her own life in order to "win the game".
Blue Whale surfaced in 2013 on popular Russian social media site, VKontakte, and the deadly challenge-based game has become a menace world over and believed to have already taken the lives of about 130 children in Russia, and more than 200 worldwide.
How does it get to you?
This "Blue Whale" challenge, still alive on different groups across social media portals such as Instagram, SnapChat, YouTube, instant messages et al, targets children by exploiting the most basic fears and insecurities that teens and pre-teens face. Children following these specific groups are initially encouraged to reach out to the moderator to take up the challenge.
Once the moderator initiates the challenge, he/she reaches out to the often emotionally marginalised and troubled children over the course of the next 50 days and starts the sickening process of brainwashing them into becoming puppets.
With the promise of alleviating the player's pain and suffering through this twisted game of death, the moderator then guides the children through “self-harm” tasks that range from watching a scary movie to more dangerous experiments like carving a blue whale on one's body.
Every task is supposed to be documented by the player and sent to the moderator or administrator, who is also known as the “whale”.
The thought behind the game?
Though it is widely described as a game, this creation of a sinister mind is anything but one. More than a game, this challenge is a means of preying on impressionable and vulnerable teens who are going through a critical phase in life. Though the game's creator claims otherwise, the Blue Whale challenge appears to be nothing more than a sick mind's way of exerting dominance and power over troubled youth.
According to a Psych Central report, the Blue Whale challenge is the creation of a "psychopath or sociopath", or has significant tendencies of psychopathy, and it is not so much a game as it is a “control and manipulation scheme directed toward vulnerable people who have serious thoughts of suicide, loneliness, and death.”
And an interview with the 22-year old man behind the creation of this challenge – currently rotting in a prison cell – corroborates the idea.
Quizzed if he was indeed behind the death of several children, he said, "I truly was doing that. Don't worry, you'll understand everything. Everyone will understand... There are people - and there is biological waste. Those who do not represent any value for society. Who cause or will cause only harm to society. I was cleaning our society of such people."
Why is this challenge not worth it?
As is clear from the words of Blue Whale's creator, this game has not been created to alleviate any suffering or pain. Neither has it been created to give lonely souls a community to call their own. The twisted purpose as its creator explains is to rid the world of "biological waste".
It cannot be stressed enough that the idea behind Blue Whale is all but flawed and diabolical and as such the letting this challenge control anyone should, in no circumstance, be considered. The key here is to understand that you are better than the lies being peddled by the game.
The key here is to understand that darkness lurks in and around all of us, and the real challenge thus is to defeat the idea behind the game by defeating this darkness by identifying and reaching out for help to slay the monster that is Blue Whale.
Though easier said than done, this is the challenge that needs to be addressed. The game that needs to be won.
Some suicide helplines in case you or someone you know is suffering from depression:
AASRA- 022 2754 6669
The Samaritans Mumbai– 022 6464 3267, 022 6565 3267, 022 6565 3247
Lifeline Foundation– +91 33 24637401, +91 33 24637432
Connecting India– 9922001122, 18002094353
Sumaitri – 011-23389090