MOTHER NATURE Mother Nature September 2017

32 Mother Nature Aug /Sep 2017 Beware of ‘The Blue Whale Game’ The Blue Whale Game is a deadly game on the internet, namely ‘The Blue Whale Game’ responsible for the alleged suicide of 14-year-old Manpreet Singh? Media reports sug- gest that the teenager, who jumped off the terrace of a seven-storey build- ing on Saturday in Andheri, a suburb of Mumbai, is toute d as India’s first victim of the suicide game. The term— blue whale — comes from the phenomenon of beached whales, which is linked to suicide. What is this odd game? In this challenge, teens are given 49 intense tasks Accidental Death Report (ADR). to complete for 50 days that leads to self-harm and With the completion of every task, players are also eventually culminates in suicide by jumping off of a asked to inflict cuts on their forearms that eventu- building. Teens challenge each other to play via social media and players are assigned game ad- ministrators who elicit their personal information that may later be used against them. The tasks include self-harming, watching horror movies and waking up at unusual hours, but these gradually get more extreme. Players are required to upload photos of the com- pleted tasks, and if they refuse, game administra- tors may threaten to harm family members or come and do the task for them. Therefore, once who be- gin the game, it becomes near-to-impossible to back out. What happened to this 14-year-old boy? Mumbai Police, after gathering information from Manpreet’s WhatsApp chats, say that he was ap- parently addicted to the Blue Whale challenge. However, his parents claim that he did not show any signs of depression. The cops have filed an ally form the shape of a blue whale. The organisers of this ghastly game prompt the players to win the challenge by killing themselves. "I learnt that Manpreet told his friends that he would not be in school on Monday as he was playing the game," reported Mid Day quoting his neighbour Sunny Valia. Origin of the game While unconfirmed, this Russian-originated game has reportedly been responsible for 130 suicide deaths. Blue Whale has also been known as A Silent House, A Sea of Whales, F57 or F-57 and is mostly played on Instagram and Snapchat. While Instagram warns users searching ‘Blue Whale’ that the content may be graphic and offers users resources for self-harm or suicide, they do still allow users to view the content. However, so- cial media sites are working to take preventative measures.

MOTHER NATURE Mother Nature September 2017 | Page 33