Damage done, now it is time for rescue. Police personnel are acting swiftly as more calls for help reach them to save gullible youth from the grip of the Blue Whale Challenge. The big task now is to create awareness in the right way
KARUR: A 14-year-old Class IX boy studying in a district school is now into rehabilitation at the District Child Protection Council after being found to be playing the deadly Blue Whale Challenge, thanks to the intervention of the school headmaster. It is alleged he had tried cutting his hand and jumping off from a height as a task initiative of the said game, and the school headmaster had enrolled the boy to the counselling centre upon information from teachers.
The Blue Whale Challenge is claiming lives of many people targeted exclusively for the distressed minds. The game lists 50 tasks that should be updated to the administrator, who will keep a close watch on the user online. The tasks include waking up early at 4.30 am, walking past the graveyard in the wee hours, climbing a crane, watching a horror movie alone, carving out a phrase on his or her arm and poking a needle in one’s hand or leg.
The game had an impact all across the globe and in India, claiming young lives. Recently, two causalties were reported in Tamil Nadu, one in Madurai and another in Puducherry. This had never stopped the 14-year-old from Semangi in the district to give the game a try. Police said the boy had visited his uncle’s house in the locality on August 26. It is said that the teenager is already addicted to electronic gadgets for quite a long time.
He had downloaded the game from a computer and transferred it to his tablet and started playing the game. The first task asked him to slice his skin, in which he cut his palm with a sharp object. The boy had also jumped off a height of four ft during the second task. The third task was quite risky as the teenager had discussed with his schoolmates that he has to walk on a railway track and post a selfie photo for a confirmation from the game administrator. His friends, upon hearing weird stuff, informed their teachers and the information soon reached the school headmaster. The higher official wasted no time. Tentatively, the boy was admitted to a District Child Protection Council for rehabilitation and counselling. Counsellors there provided various courses to get the boy out of the deadly game.Police said the counsellors had informed that the student is completely out of the game and is alright now.
KNOW THE GAME
Blue Whale Challenge is an online suicide game wherein a group of administrators gives a participant a task daily, for a period of 50 days
The culmination of the game will see the participant committing suicide
Participants are expected to share photos of the tasks completed
The daily tasks start off easy — such as listening to certain genres of music, waking up at odd hours, watching a horror movie, before the focus turns to carving the shape of a blue whale using a sharp object on one’s skin, self-mutilation and eventually suicide
Blue Whale is played by more people in India than in the US, said C Kalavathey, Additional Superintendent of Police, Madurai, during an awareness programme to sensitise students at
Lady Doak College in Madurai on Tuesday
After his arrest, Blue Whale Challenge creator Phillip Budeikin has termed the players of the game as ‘biological waste to be removed from the society’
The Government of India has directed internet giants such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, WhatsApp and Yahoo to remove the links related to Blue Whale Challenge