SC to hear plea for ban on Blue Whale game

The Supreme Court is likely to hear on Friday a plea seeking a ban on the macabre online game Blue Whale Challenge.

The bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said it would hear the matter on Friday as counsel told the court that the popularity of the game was spreading to all cities and because of the lack of awareness it was resulting in deaths.

The PIL petitioner advocate N.S. Ponnaiah has in his petition said that the game is gaining popularity through social media and till date there are reports of around 200 people committing suicide in India after playing the online game Blue Whale.

Ponnaiah has said that there was need for an immediate ban on the game and also create awareness about it, adding that so far the central government has not taken sufficient steps to make people aware of the dangers of the game.

The Blue Whale Challenge, reportedly created by a former convict in Russia, is said to psychologically provoke players to indulge in daring, self-destructive tasks for 50 days before finally taking the "winning" step of killing themselves.

--IANS

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