Whale of a challenge

Govts, parents must do their bit to protect teens

The crazed following of an online “game”, Blue Whale, is said to be the reason behind some recent suicides by teenagers in India, and indeed, across the world. The first Indian suicide ascribed to this macabre game occurred in Mumbai in late July. A couple of youngsters have since died in Kerala and some teenagers have also been prevented from completing the ultimate task. The horrifyingly dangerous game has been linked to at least 130 teen deaths across Russia and police in the UK have now started warning parents about the challenge.

Blue Whale is the oddest and most disturbing of fads driven by social media. Links can be found on multiple social media channels and dark web chat rooms. Players who sign up are ordered around by an administrator, referred to as the “Blue Whale”. Players log on at odd hours to receive instructions. They are told to complete painful, dangerous “tasks” such as carving letters on their bodies with knives, binge-watching horror films and killing animals every day for a 50-day period. Volunteers have to furnish proof of completion in the form of digital photographs. On the 50th day, volunteers are instructed to delete all social media accounts and commit suicide.

Blue Whale reportedly originated in Russia and the creator, Philipp Budeikin, a 21-year-old native of St Petersburg, has said that he is personally responsible for influencing at least 17 teenaged girls to commit suicide. According to him, they “died happy”. He wishes to remove “human waste” — youngsters vulnerable to psychological pressure.

Other “Whales” may have different motivations, of course. But while Mr Budeikin may be a psychopath, he is obviously not the only one. The “game” is structured for one-on-one interactions with a Whale who gradually steers a young adult to suicide, which means that somebody personally induced every death. The game is already banned in most jurisdictions and police in many nations have issued advisories. 

Across the world, emotionally fragile and alienated teenagers are a cliché since they are common to every culture. Teens are statistically far more likely to commit suicide than, say, 45-year-olds. Youngsters often attempt suicide, or indulge in high-risk behaviour and self-harm, for apparently absurd reasons. But there is usually a deeper cause — it could be an unhappy family environment, scholastic pressures, bullying, unrequited love, etc. Psychiatrists claim that there are usually warning signs in the form of unusual and aberrant behaviour before the trigger point.

Yet, there has never been something like Blue Whale before. Perhaps, such a phenomenon could only arise in the social media era where a faceless administrator can order a total stranger to commit suicide. But the impulse towards destruction and self-destruction is obviously present in a significant number of individuals. Charismatic maniacs such as Jim Jones have induced mass suicide amongst their followers. Cult leaders such as Charles Manson (and sundry genocidal maniacs such as Pol Pot and Hitler) have influenced followers to commit senseless violent crimes on varying scales. Blue Whale just channels those impulses in a horrifyingly efficient fashion.

This particular fad may fade out, sooner rather than later, assuming law enforcement authorities cooperate across multiple jurisdictions to find the “Whales”. But copycat variants and spin-offs may also emerge. The Indian government has done a sensible job by asking all major social media and communication platforms to remove any links pertaining to the Blue Whale challenge. But the government alone can’t do the job. It would behove parents to pay greater heed to their children’s social behaviour patterns and online surfing habits. This may involve steering a delicate line between discreet oversight in order not to infringe privacy. If Blue Whale actually induces parents to try and build better relationships with their children, it might do future generations an inadvertent favour.