What is the Blue Whale Challenge- the online suicide game?

he deadly Blue Whale Suicide Challenge

The Blue Whale Challenge also known as the Blue Whale Suicide Game is a social media phenomenon. Usually considered to be an urban myth, the game has gotten increased attention after a spate of teen suicides were said to be linked to the game. It is not a downloadable game, app or software. It is a social media phenomenon such as the ALS challenge that is spread through secretive groups.

Origin Story

The game appears to have originated on a russian social site VKontakte with “F57”, one of the names of the so-called “death group” of the  site leading to the first suicide in the year 2015. The game plays out over 50 days, where a player has to successfully complete 50 challenges. The challenges range from watching a horror movie to self mutilation. These tasks are given by the “curator”, who also asks for photos of the teenagers carrying out the tasks as proof for his approval. The last of the 50 challenges as we know – is suicide.

Spread & Arrests

Reports started coming in from various Russian sources that a VK group administrator had been detained for urging children to commit suicide. Some months later , a YouTuber Sasho Panchuk, uploaded a video wherein a Russian teenager pretends to jump off a roof titled  “The guy plays Blue Whale jump from roof”. Though the video has since been removed, the game spread leading to reports that the game could be responsible for around 130 deaths.

In May earlier this year, Russian authorities revealed that they had made an arrest related to these deaths – a 21 year old expelled psychology student Philipp Budeikin. Philipp claimed to have invented the game with the purpose of cleansing society by pushing people that he deemed of no value towards suicide. Later, he plead guilty to the charges of inciting at least 16 teenage girls towards committing suicide. He had also claimed that the reasons for creating this game were linked to him suffering from bipolar disorder, he was later found to be of sane mind by the court.

The game has received renewed interest after a suicide committed by a teenage boy by jumping off the roof of his house were said to be linked to the game. This has caused the local police to investigate other recent teen suicide cases as possibly connected to the Blue Whale game. Meanwhile, the Indian government has asked the top internet companies in the country including Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Microsoft and Yahoo to remove any links or references to the Blue Whale.