KOLKATA:
Anxious school authorities
and parents' groups in the city have started issuing advisories via websites,
social media
and group messaging apps regarding
Blue Whale, an online game that has reportedly been linked to hundreds of teen deaths across the world - the latest been at
Andheri in Mumbai
, where a 14-year-old boy jumped from the terrace as the
"final task
" of the game.
The 'suicide game' debuted in Russia four years ago. The challenge first appeared as a phone app, which couldn't be uninstalled. It hacked users' personal information. The game asks participants to draw a blue whale on a piece of paper and carve the figure on their body. That is the first of 50 dares, which may include watching horror movies alone or harming themselves. If a person fails in completing a task, personal information that was stolen is used to blackmail the user. The final task is suicide. Every task has to be filmed and shared as "proof" with the curator.
In a WhatsApp message with TOI, circulated by parents across groups of schools, reads: "Any parents out there or anyone who knows of a kid playing an online game called 'Blue Whale', please get them off this game immediately. The game sets the kids 50 challenges, many of them being hurting themselves and the last one is to commit suicide. Please act fast and save your children from this
deadly game."