The news of Kerala teen killing himself, trying to complete the Blue Whale Challenge as per his mother, has triggered discussion and debate on the topic in the country right now. The infamous internet challenge that ends with the players killing themselves has allegedly taken over 150 lives in Russia and Europe.
Last month, the suicide of a 14-year-old boy in Mumbai had brought the Blue Whale Challenge to limelight in India. One of the last photos on his phone India Today could access was captioned, "Soon the only thing you would be left with will be a picture of me". Sources close to the kid's family, however, denied any links to the Blue Whale Challenge and said that the family learned about its existence only after seeing media reports.
The deadly game has since reportedly claimed three lives in India while a few other cases of teenagers being saved at the last moment were reported.
What's common in all these cases? The teenagers were allegedly playing the Blue Whale Challenge.
1. Mumbai
The fourteen-year-old boycommitted suicide by jumping off a seven-storey building in Andheri, Mumbai. The Class 9 student's suicide was said to be linked to the Blue Whale Challenge. A neighbour spotted him walking on the edge of the terrace shooting what seemed like a selfie video before he jumped off and killed himself.
The boy's suicide raised many questions. The issue was raised in the Maharashtra assembly and CM Fadnavis called it "worrisome".
2. Kolkata
A 15-year-old boy killed himself by suffocating. Alarms were raised when the teenager went to take a bath but did not come out for a long time. When the family broke into the bathroom the boy was found lying on the floor, dead. His face was wrapped in a plastic sheet and he had a towel wrapped around his body.
Although most media reports claimed that there were no other injuries (cuts) on his body, it is still contentious as there are no visuals of the body available and all details were based on accounts of the family members.
His friends claimed that he told them about the Blue Whale Challenge but the family said that they did not notice anything unusual in his behaviour.
3. Kerala
A 16-year-old, Class 11 student, hanged himself to death on July 26. Day before yesterday, Manoj's mother told police the she suspects that he son had taken up the Blue Whale Challenge and it could be the reason behind her son's death.
In an interview, Manoj's mother said that he mentioned the Blue Whale challenge to her nine months ago. She laughed it off but was concerned when she got to know about the details of the challenge. She asked Manoj to give her a word that he won't take it up.
His mother told a local channel that she had since seen changes in her son's behaviour. He never traveled alone but she got to know he went to the beach alone, that he stayed awake all night and slept only around 5 AM.
Manoj also asked his mother if she would be sad if he died and if she would be able to recover from the loss. Manoj's Facebook profile also shows some signs (read posts) that hint he could have been suffering from depression.
Apart from cases of suicides, there have been reports of teenagers being stopped from committing suicide.
A Class 7 kid in Indore's Chameli Devi School was stopped from jumping off the school's third floor. On further questioning, the kid revealed that he had been playing the Blue Whale Challenge on his father's mobile. An activist told IndiaToday.in that the boy's body had cuts as well.
A similar case was reported from Dehradun, the school on conditions of anonymity, told that a Class 5 student was stopped from committing suicide after noticing unusual behaviour. Class teacher, worried seeing the drastic change in the kid's demeanor -- from a playful kid to a gloomy kid -- informed the principal about it and the principal reached out to the child. The kid spoke to the principal about the Blue Whale Challenge. The school authorities immediately contacted his parents and took necessary actions to avoid any extreme step by the kid.
WAY FORWARD
With the Blue Whale Challenge making headlines over the last few weeks, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan asked the Centre to ban the Blue Whale Challenge. Banning the challenge could prove a tough task because it is propagated via social media using hashtags but with the help of social media giants like Twitter and Facebook, and Google, the commonly used hashtags could be disabled. The Centre directed Facebook, Twitter and Google to remove all links related to the challenge from their platforms.
Various steps have been taken by social media giants like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram to spread awareness about the Blue Whale Challenge. Typing hashtags commonly used by whales and curators will first land you on to a page with helpline links and numbers. There is also a provision to report a tweet or social media activity and help is offered to the users.
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