Parents beware! The suicide game which forced a Mumbai teen to jump to his death
- Players in this game are asked to tattoo the image of a whale or F57 on any part of their body
- Children can be lured in using Instagram, Facebook, Reddit and more social media networks
- A 14-year-old in Andheri is believed to have committed suicide because he was asked to do so in the game
FollowRemember how we told you about the Blue Whale Game back in April this year?
You can read all about it here: Parents beware! This new online game could kill your child
Now, according to reports in the media, India could have its first reported case of death due to the Blue Whale Game or in other words, the suicide game.
A 14- year-old boy living in Andheri jumped off a seven-storey building, allegedly under the influence of the game.
According to a report in the Midday, the boy, Manpreet Singh is alleged to have told his friends that he would not be coming to school on Monday, since he would be playing the game. There was no suicide note also left behind.
The report also talks of a Facebook post allegedly confirming the death. A local resident in a post titled Feeling Broken wrote" The suicide is due to his following a suicide game called The Blue Whale game, he was following for 50 days where he was commanded to suicide. (sic)"
The police, however, are yet to pinpoint this as the reason for his death.
In the past we have seen social media go overboard when it comes to events like the icebucket challenge and more and now we have the Blue Whale Game. However, we must keep in mind that not all games are just fun or for a cause, they may have ulterior motives as well.
Where can your children access it?
Instagram and Snapchat are the most common sites used for the challenge, though this and other death groups are also hidden in Facebook and Reddit. Blue Whale has also been known as A Silent House, A Sea of Whales, F57 or F-57 and more may appear.
What is the Blue Whale Game or the Suicide Game?
It is called so based on the tendency of whales who beach themselves in an act of suicide. In this game an anonymous master assigns tasks to the players. Each task master gets an individual participant to whom they dictate things to complete in a matter of 49 days. The tasks could be mundane or as dangerous as asking you to inflict self-harm and use a sharp object to create the shape of a whale or the letters F 57 on your arm or leg.
Participants can be asked to jump off a moving bus, the first floor of the house etc and whoever survives without harm accomplishes the task. It could also include watching horror videos all day, stopping interaction with family and friends, overdosing and various forms of self-harm and all these have to be filmed for confirmation that the challenge is completed. And all traces of conversation have to be removed. And participants are also threatened that if they fail to do so, then task masters can trace their IP address, find out where they live and identify them.
Often on the 50 day the task culminates into challenging the participant to do tasks in which the threat to life is considerably high like crossing a busy street, jumping in front of a moving train. The group has thousands of followers on Social media.
Many parents have reported this trend and in fact, one of the game’s ringleaders, Philipp Budeikin, has just received a three year sentence after pleading guilty to provoking suicide.
