The casualties of the game have already crossed 100 and the bloodthirsty cetacean has now washed ashore Kerala coasts. Kottayam: If someone told you a few years ago that there’s an online game that makes a player enter into a certain death pact with some random stranger, you probably would have laughed at it. But times have changed and smart technology sure has a sinister dimension, the Blue Whale suicide game being just one of them.
The casualties of the game have already crossed 100 and the bloodthirsty cetacean has now washed ashore Kerala coasts. Two deaths have already been reported in the state and the specter of the killer game is lurking menacingly close on the horizon.
Although investigators are still grappling with the imaginary link between the recent teen deaths and the twisted suicide challenge, worried parents were quick to spring into action and clamp down on their kids’ Internet usage.
But what’s lost in the clamor for cyber security and calls for parental controls is the ‘why’ factor – the reason why our teens are drawn to a senseless game like this in the first place.
The soft targets
"Most adolescents have a concept of personal fable and a sense of uniqueness about themselves. They seek attention, and when they do not get it from their parents and caregivers, they succumb to the temptation of such games,” says Suman Doogar, a counselor at Amity International School, Saket.
She adds that children from troubled families are particularly vulnerable.
Arresting the spread
But even as governments all over the world try hard to arrest the wildfire-like spread of Blue Whale Challenge, the game is constantly evolving, making it all the more difficult to hunt down its perpetrators.
Although the Russian government, which saw the maximum number of Blue Whale deaths, could bring things under control with the arrest of Philipp Budeikin, who invented the game, it could do nothing in preventing its propagation.
Meanwhile, Kisley Chaudhary, a cyber expert who assists Delhi Police, has another interpretation to the game, which is even more alarming. “Blue Whale may just be the tip of an iceberg. There may be several such threats looming in cyber space. Better awareness among Internet users can help them not fall into such traps.
“Even if you ban such games from the app store, it is impossible to remove the links (if any). A certain number of links can be identified, but if it’s shortened using online tools, it will go undetected,” he says.
Some reports suggest that there aren’t any links nor websites and the admins of the game are contacting vulnerable teens through social media. Apparently, they use hashtags to find each other. Disabling such hashtags could be one way to prevent its spread but the vile techies who promote the game will surely find other ways to connect with their preys.
Hence, ensuring cyber awareness for teens is the only long-term solution. Choudhary also points out that Blue Whale admins might be using the details obtained by them during the initial stages of the game to blackmail the teenagers into performing the tasks without quitting in the middle.
They may even be installing malware, which would send them information from a player’s personal gadgets. Thus, it’s essential to have ‘clean gadgets’ to protect oneself and others from such cyber attackers. Also, one should never share any personal information with unknown people befriended online.
The most important thing, however, is adequate supervision by caregivers and guardians. “Parents have to be very particular about what their children are doing online,” says Doogar.
According to Doogar, parents should also let their wards know why they are being monitored. Children should not be treated as inferior beings and made to obey their parents blindly. Hence, explaining to them the rationale behind a decision is a must.
‘Whaling’ in Kerala
The dare-based game requires the participants to take up daily challenges for 50 consecutive days with the final one being killing oneself. The tasks include waking up at odd hours, watching scary movies, injuring oneself with sharp tools, etc.
At least three deaths in India are being suspected to be influenced by the game and police are still probing the cases.
In the cases reported from Kerala, the youths visited cemeteries and beaches at odd hours and made marks on their hands using a compass. There’s a slight discrepancy here: the dates of their deaths and the dates on which they performed the tasks were not within the 50-day bracket in both these instances.
This means that either their deaths cannot be directly linked to Blue Whale challenge or that the game is adapting itself to claim more lives.
The police are yet to confirm any case of ‘Blue Whale’ death in Kerala.
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