Indian cities occupy first 30 spots on Blue Whale search list

KOLKATA: Blue Whale Challenge, the deadly online game in which participants are given life-threatening challenges in secret groups, has piqued the interest of Indians like never before, shows data published by Google.
Till late Wednesday, the top 30 spots on a Google global list of 50 cities that searched the most for the dangerous online game were all occupied by Indian cities, with Kochi at the top and Kolkata at No.2. In fact, there were altogether 33 Indian cities among the top 50. Two other cities from Bengal — Siliguri and Howrah — took the 16th and 19th spots respectively.
According to Google Tre-nds — the public web facility of Google Inc based on Google Search that shows how often a particular search term is entered relative to the total search-volume across various regions of the world — India consistently ranked first in the world for searches related to the Blue Whale Challenge for the past 12 months. Kolkata was at No. 1 till Tuesday, but was overtaken by Kochi on Wednesday.
The two cities were follow-ed by Kanpur, Ghaziabad and Coimbatore. The first city outside India on the list is Sharjah at No. 31. The continuously updated data is based on searching related keywords like Blue Whale Challenge, Blue Whale Game Download, Blue Whale Suicide Game, Blue Whale Game apk and Suicide Game.
The infamous Blue Whale Challenge has been making headlines both nationally and internationally due to the rising number of teenage suicides by its players around the world. To be part of the challenge, one has to be accepted by an administrator who, reportedly, allows only troubled teens to ‘play’.
Over the course of the next 50 days, the participant is given one challenge a day, providing photographic evidence of having completed it to the administrator to move to the next one. Several of the tasks in the challenge include cutting oneself and carving messages on the hands and legs. Other dangerous tasks include standing on the ledges of high buildings, bridges, poking yourself with needles, watching disturbing videos sent by the administrator. The final task is to commit suicide.
The Blue Whale challenge is believed to have originated in Russia in 2013, invented by a Philipp Budeikin, a psychology student expelled by his university, who claimed he created the challenge to "clean society" by egging those who were of no value to it to commit suicide. Budeikin was eventually arrested and proved guilty for inciting 16 teenagers to commit suicide.
Since July, teenagers from Kerala, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh have reportedly committed suicide after playing the game. At least two teenagers were intercepted and saved just before they attempted the final suicide task. Last week, the authorities of Budge Budge Institute of Technology engineering college and the CID’s cyber cell raced against time to bring back a 19-year-old student from the brink after he came dangerously close to undertaking the last Blue Whale challenge, death. This was the first case in Bengal where alert officials have been successful in pre-empting a Blue Whale death after a West Midnapore boy took up the fatal challenge and died in the second week of August. On 24 August, West Bengal CID shared an awareness video on its official Facebook page to warn teenagers and issue guidelines for parents and teachers to enable them to protect children.
There has been growing concern among parents, the government and law-enforcement agencies about vulnerable teens falling prey to the allure of the challenge. In a letter dated 11 August, the Ministry of Electronics and IT directed six Internet majors — Google, Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, Microsoft and Yahoo — to immediately remove links to the dangerous game.
Psychiatrists in the city said the finding was extremely disturbing as well as alarming. “People especially teenagers have a knack to do what is prohibited. Hence, as there is more news of this deadly game, more young adults may start taking interest and may end up playing the game. Parents should be very careful about what our children are searching and doing over the internet,” said city psychiatrist Jai Ranjan Ram.
A mother of a class VI student however said the search increase may have been the result of more awareness on part of the parents as well as students. “I have searched all related links and facts related to the game to counsel my children to ensure they do not end up playing the game and also to learn the signs and symptoms of identifying if my son is actually into the game,” said Samarpita Roy Chowdhury, a homemaker in Jadavpur.