As the horrifying effects of the Blue Whale Challenge have come to light in these past few days, some students of a self-financing college on the outskirts of the capital city heave a sigh of relief, as they could eject out of the globally infamous challenge before getting mentally trapped. "After going through seven tasks, I felt like it had a hypnotic effect. Luckily, I decided at that point to eject out of it," says Jithin (name changed), a third-year degree student. Jithin was introduced to the deadly challenge by one of his friends through Facebook. "My friend just shared the link a couple of months back. I had heard of its ill-effects earlier also. But just decided to give a try,” adds Jithin. “The initial challenges were really easier ones. Even then, after going through the first seven stages, I felt like my mind was in a floating stage. I was losing concentration on my studies.”
Some of his college mates also tasted and spat out the Blue Whale. After the Blue Whale Challenge became controversial and the unnatural deaths of some youngsters in the state are being linked to it, the students who played it are really scared to admit it. “What we could learn from a couple of students was that they had only tried it and did not go beyond the basic levels that only posed easy challenges like waking up early in the morning. We are also interacting with the students and making them aware of the deadly effects of the challenge,” says a college staff. A good number of dubious links are also now circulating among college students with the 'Blue Whale' tag.
Manoj Abraham
"A lot of wrong information and scaremongering seem to be doing the rounds over Blue Whale these days. Some are even referring to installing the Blue Whale app, while there is no such app. Blue Whale is just played over any social media chat platform,” says Manoj Abraham, IG, Thiruvananthapuram range. Even as a couple of suicides are now being linked to the challenge, so far the police have not even come across any Blue Whale-related instances in the state. The police, however, feel the ongoing hype would in a way make parents more alert. Psychologists also stress on the need for parents to play a key role in ensuring their children do not fall prey to such deadly or addictive games.
“Parents should make it a habit to spend quality time with their children and have informal personal chats with them. This is one way of having an informal surveillance over the activities of children, even while allowing privacy to them,” says noted child psychiatrist Dr R. Jayaprakash. Almost on a daily basis, he comes across children, mainly teenagers, getting addicted to computer games, both online and offline. “But I’ve not come across specific cases of Blue Whale addiction,” he adds.
‘Ban not an immediate solution’
Harpooning the ‘Blue Whale’ has become the talk of the town. Parents as well as lawmakers are desperate to ban the challenge to avoid further suicides in society, where, one by one, teenagers are reportedly succumbing to the demands posed by the game. K. Sanjay Kumar Gurudin, an IPS officer from Kerala cadre, who served as district police chief and penned a book Is Your Child Safe? —detailing the threats posed by the cyber world to kids — believes that the idea of “banning” seems a bit absurd. Commandant at KAP IV, Kannur, Mr. Gurudin says the ‘Blue Whale’ is a challenge, neither a game nor an app. “For starters, the Blue Whale Challenge isn't an app or a service that you download or subscribe to. It is a list of 50 tasks that you perform. After each task, you share the updates on social media using hashtags such as #curatorfindme, #BlueWhaleChallenge, among others,” he says.
Curators or admins for the game, who monitor these hashtags, then get in touch with these players through social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat or WhatsApp. “They then assign tasks to the respective players. These curators and admins mask themselves using the internet. It's virtually impossible to find them and they could be anyone. The players have to provide proof in the form of photos or videos of the tasks they have performed. Over time, the curators get personal details from the players or access to private content, which can be used to blackmail them, in case they say a task isn't completed. If we think banning the Blue Whale Challenge will solve the issue, we are horribly mistaken! There are so many others popping up. How many can the government track and how many games will it ban? For teenagers, trying something that is banned definitely increases the thrill-level and further feeds their curiosity,” he says.
As an officer, who interacted with many teenage victims of online abuse and addiction and faced many parents, who repented their lack of knowledge about the online world, Gurudin feels the government needs to focus on devising some mechanism to make parents, teachers and children aware of these dangers. “If parents find it difficult to stay up-to-date with the latest internet trends, government bodies can help them out by launching awareness programmes in schools and colleges, educating students on safe online behaviour,” he adds.
Warning signs:
* A child or teen physically hurting himself/herself
* A difference in eating or sleeping habits
* A significant increase in screen time
* Cutting themselves off from regular life
* Substance abuse
* Social media posts using #i_am_whale
Watch out for:
1) The Blue Whale challenge targets kids who are mentally low,
disturbed and in difficult situations and are mostly lonely and depressed. Family and friends should identify these signs and should come together to help the kids. If you know or hear about some kids in difficult times, try not to ignore but talk instead. If your kids are in boarding schools, keep constant connect with them to know of their overall well-being.
2) The Blue Whale Challenge game starts with the player writing 'YES' on his/her hand with a razor. The player needs to send an image of this 'YES' to the curator. As this game mostly targets school going kids, guardians, friends or near ones should keep a close watch of early signs. Cut marks on lips, razor scratches on hands should be considered seriously. Just be observant. See whether there is any self inflicted injury on the body.
3) Watch out for kids
listening to weird psychedelic music or waking up at odd hours.
4) The signs are very similar to someone attempting suicide or self-harm. The concern over here is that the Blue Whale Challenge serves as a platform to connect
people with suicidal tendencies and speeds up the end-result in a well-designed '50-steps to death' game.
