Well, luckily it’s been a while since we heard the term ‘Blue Whale challenge‘. The supposed ‘game’ brought horror and sadness to people all over the world in 2016 and even carried forward into 2017. However, as we fall deeper into 2020, there seem to be new reports of the dreaded challenge resurfacing online. Let us just take a second to put out a disclaimer; Under no circumstance should you participate in any such ‘game’ or ‘challenge’.
Origin of the Blue Whale challenge
In 2015, a number of reports surfaced of an online ‘suicide’ game. The game seems to have originated from Russia, where a certain Rina Palenkova took her life shortly after posting a selfie online. Sad as this was, the more perplexing part of it was a group of similar-aged youth that were all a part of an online forum.
Following Palenkova’s suicide, a strange response was generated from the group. Many of its members seemed to glorify what she did. The fact that there seemed to be such little surprise among the group, led the authorities to believe that the suicide was in fact planned beforehand and that the members of the group already knew about it.
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Following the first suicide, reports started popping up of more such suicides linked to the first. In a number of them, there was a blue whale in some shape or form. For example, in a young girl’s suicide in Georgia, U.S. the parents much later realized that the drawings she had made were those of blue whales.
The girl in Georgia was one of the first cases seen outside of Russia and led to quite a panic. The Blue Whale challenge brought about a revolution in the way people perceived cyberbullying.
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What is the Blue Whale challenge?
At its core, the Blue Whale challenge is a form of cyberbullying. From collected reports, the age of all the participants seems to be around 12 to 14 years old, which indicates social pressure may have been a factor. However, closer evaluation seems to be inconclusive, since the teenagers were in fact lauded for completing the challenge. Many reports claim that the game is usually curated by a member of the group (probably the host). However, there has only been one arrest made with regard to such a person, who claimed to have started the whole thing off.
The Blue Whale challenge is a dangerous game that spans out clear instructions on what the player has to do. The game lasts 50 days from the day it is begun. Strangely there is no concrete evidence of what the game actually entails. The challenge spells out the tasks that are to be done each day. Original reports suggested that the players did not in fact know what the next day’s tasks were going to be. However, as the game gained popularity the idea behind the challenge became quite clear to anyone participating.
The tasks apparently start off easy, with the curator asking the players to do strange things like wake up at midnight, or keep YouTube running certain videos while sleeping. Each task is to be completed by the end of the day. As the days go by, the tasks start getting more dangerous, like standing on a ledge. One of the tasks apparently seemed to be carving a blue whale into your skin.
Day 50 of the challenge is rumored to be something along the lines of recording yourself, and then finally taking your life. As mentioned above, there exists no evidence of what the tasks are really supposed to be, probably because the posts were immediately removed by the curator of the game.
The new surfacing of the deadly internet challenge is targetted at social media platforms since most of the youth have accounts there. As opposed to how the game started, new reports state that curators are now messaging people and asking them if they ‘want to play a game’.
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Why is it called the Blue Whale Challenge
While there is no direct relationship with the group and blue whales or any animals, there were a number of mentions of the mammal on the group’s chats. Experts later concurred that the group might have been using the animal as a sort of representation of the group’s ideologies.
Blue whales are lonesome creatures and live for roughly the same amount of time as humans do. However, these animals are known to beach themselves by coming too close to the coastline. Beached whales eventually die since they cannot get back into the water. Experts believe that the challenge may be based on Blue Whale’s tendencies to kill themselves.
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Luckily social media platforms are stepping up. Facebook, in particular, has set up a helpline to provide guidance to users suffering from depressions and other such ailments. In fact, if you search for the term ‘Blue Whale’ on Facebook, you will be presented with the Suicide and Self Harm Helpline. Check out the link below to learn more. Instagram on the other hand immediately blocks your search letting you know that the content could encourage harmful behavior.
Link: Facebook Suicide and Self-Injury Resources
The Blue Whale challenge is very dangerous and causes harm to you and everyone around you too. Report any links or messages that you may receive on Instagram or other social media pertaining to this challenge.
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