An app which has been making the rounds for a few years now is forcing users to take their own lives. The Blue Whale Challenge game created by a 21-year-old Russian forces a player to accomplish different tasks in a period of 50 days. The game asks the players, notably teenaged students, to perform various self-harming challenges culminating in their suicide.
The Blue Whale Challenge gathers personal information about the user after it is downloaded. A so-called mentor or master gives the player different tasks. The game starts off innocently enough with tasks such as listening to a particular song or watching a scary movie before quickly becoming deadly with challenges like cutting oneself and balancing on rooftop ledges. The teenagers are also required to take a video of them doing the challenges and post them online particularly on YouTube. On the 50th day of the challenge, the young players are told to delete everything related to the game and then take their own lives. According to Computer World, the group administrator threatens the users that their stolen personal data will be released or their family will be harmed if they refuse to do the tasks.
The game is the brainchild of Phillip Budekin. He is already in custody in relation to the death of at least 16 girls via suicide. Budekin boasts that his game is a way of "cleansing society" of "biological waste". He also said that the victims were "dying happy" since he gave the victims "what they didn't have in real life: warmth, understanding, connections".
The Blue Whale game first appeared in Russia and India is targeting vulnerable young people. In fact, it is rumored that the deadly game has already taken 130 young lives from Nov 2015 to April 2016. Among the victims is a couple of teenaged schoolgirls who jumped to their deaths in February. Another victim, a 12-year-old who also jumped off the 14th floor of a building, died 50 days after joining the "Wake Me Up at 4.20" user group.
There are also reports that the game has already reached France, Brazil, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the United States. Authorities in the said nations have also begun taking the necessary steps to prevent the game from harming their young citizens. The French police are already warning their people on Twitter with a tweet that says in English, "Do not let yourself be influenced. No challenge is worth risking your life." Over at the United States, police authorities and schools are already taking the necessary steps to prevent the diabolical game from spreading among American teenagers. In Alabama, for example, schools have issued warnings to parents to be vigilant as there are rumors that the Blue Whale app has already reached a couple of high schools in Baldwin County.
It is also reported that the Blue Whale Challenge game has been taken off Google Play and Apple's App Store. Instagram, meanwhile, has also issued a warning for those who search for the game via the hashtag "#bluewhalechallenge".
The app was named after the blue whale, a marine mammal which supposedly takes its own life by stranding itself on beaches. Users can download the Blue Whale Challenge app and tag others on social media networks such as Snapchat to invite them to play the game. This deadly game is reminiscent to how technology has played a part in a number of fatal circumstances.
