Visakhapatnam: The increasing number of suicides by teens due to their infatuation with the sinister Blue Whale Challenge trigger need to monitor kids as to how they are using the Internet and their activities on social media.
Most of those falling prey to the game are troubled teens feeling low or being disturbed for some reason. They should be taken care of.
The tendency of teenagers befriending strangers online is a cause of concern. About 31 per cent of the teenagers in Vizag have made between 1 and 50 unknown friends or virtual strangers through social media sites. This came to light during a survey conducted by TCS to understand the digital habits of children between the age group of 12-18 years or among Generation Z (Gen Z) (born after 1995).
Vizag teens were also found to be simultaneously active on multiple social media platforms. While Facebook with 57 per cent and Google Plus 35 per cent are the most popular social media, other platforms like Instagram (24 per cent), Twitter (21 per cent), and Quora (14 per cent) are also gaining popularity.
When it comes to online games, game apps are downloaded most by Vizag teens after educational apps by the students than other apps such as shopping, food, health and entertainment related apps. Educational apps were found to be the most popular (66 per cent) amongst teens, closely followed by gaming apps (60 per cent) and instant messaging apps (51 per cent) and Entertainment apps (39 per cent).
Speaking about the sick Blue Whale game, Andhra University Psychology Department professor Dr. M.V.R. Raju, who has a specialisation in stress, health counselling and organisation behaviour, said: Going by the incidents and the views of the man who began this sick game only troubled teens who are depressed and have developed a self-pity feeling are being targeted. What I observed is the academic pressure to perform, lack of parent-children interaction and possible emotional disturbance because of other reasons is inducing depression among teens. So, the parents should spend good amount of time with the children and keep a tab on how they are using mobile phones."
Lack of love, warmth and also failure and loneliness is forcing the students to make friends with strangers online. The blue whale is also a social media group of the unknown that instructs the victims to perform 50 tasks which drive one to commit suicide.
