Panel soon to tackle Blue Whale

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to set up a committee to tackle the menace posed by blue whale game, which is inducing students and youngsters to commit suicide.

A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud passed this interim order on a writ petition filed by advocate Sneha Kalita seeking framing of guidelines to curb this menace. The bench also directed that petitions pending in high courts should not be taken up for adjudication.

The petitioner submitted that a number of unfortunate incidents of committing suicide / self-harm and grievous hurt are being caused by Teenagers and Youngsters themselves by playing a dangerous / suicidal online game commonly known as ‘Blue Whale’ Game. The game appears to goad vulnerable teens into killing themselves. It forces them to perform several dangerous activities/ tasks, finally leading them to commit suicide. The number of incidents happened and reported throughout the Country where already 13 numbers of deaths has been reported in the verge of completing the task while playing this deadly game.

The incidents of suicides and rescued cases have been reported throughout the country particularly from the States-Assam, Orissa, Mumbai, Delhi, Manipur, Chennai, West Bengal, Haryanna, Madhaya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Union Territory Puduchery. There is a serious threats of   life and rising deaths from this game / challenge. This game is mainly played on social media applications like instagram, facebook, Watsapp,Yahoo, Google, online gaming groups, message boards and online community messaging areas. It can be played on Computer and Mobile phones. This game has been developed and designed in such a way that the children specially the age group of 10-22 years are easily getting trapped and attracted to play this dangerous game / challenge and have harmed themselves either by cutting hands (by making a picture of whale) or by jumping from the building causing grievous injuries which has succumbed to death .The game has claimed many lives worldwide.

She said according to several reports, the Blue whale challenge is a suicide game in which the player have to provide proof in the form of photos and is given certain tasks on a daily basis for 50 days and after each task video of the tasks performed are shared with curators and finally the last task leads to suicide of the player as he or she psychologically gets so much traumatized, addicted and depressed which led to taking their own life. The participants is also asked to share photos after finishing each challenge and sometimes the administrator of the game threatens to kill the participants if they do not do the next task and hacked their phones and computers as well. The petitioner prayed for framing guidelines to stop this menace.