Current Events Ⅰ

Online Suicide Game

Thinking about the negative influence of the social sites on our society, this unbelievable case has come first to my mind. It has gained a huge publicity during the last several months.

It began in autumn in Russia. Parents started to notice that their teenage children were behaving in the unusual and strange way, spending almost all of their time on the social site “Vkontakte” and chatting with some strangers. Unfortunately, not enough attention was paid to it. Later these teenagers were found dead. They all committed suicides. They all were playing an online game that is called “Blue Whale”. It is named from a common belief that blue whales voluntarily beach themselves in order to end their own lives. 

The public was shocked. No one could imagine that a simple chat in the social sites can lead youngsters to suicide. Let us consider this case more deeply.

The Blue Whale ‘suicide game’ is an online social media group, which is encouraging people to kill themselves. There is a group administrator who gives daily tasks to members that they agree to complete in 50 days. These tasks can vary, but all of them include self-harming like cutting veins in a shape of the whale, watching horror movies, waking up at night.  The first challenge usually comes at 4:20 am. Every time you accomplish a task, you must provide a photo or video proof to the curator. Nothing extremely bad, you can say, but tasks are gradually getting more and more extreme. On the 50^th day of this game, the curator instructs the teenager to jump off the roof or to throw yourself under a train. When the aim is achieved, the game is over.

Now here are some numbers. According to the police database, there were at least 130 suicides across Russia, which are linked to this online game. Investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported:  “Almost all these children were members of the same internet groups and lived in good, happy families. Parents were not expecting it”.

To my mind, such a horrible event must have happened now or later.

On the one hand, the social sites have started to play such a huge role in our lives, and especially in teenagers' lives. Teenagers that are approximately 12 to 16 years old spend most of their free time online. The main threat is the fact that they are very vulnerable and sensitive, they do not have the sense of reality and they are not able to understand all the depth and seriousness of this game. It has become a trend and as every trend, this game attracts teenagers' attention. Youngsters hear about the “Blue Whale” from their friends and classmates, they want to be in that trend and they participate in it. On the other hand, parents should also be blamed in this situation, because often they do not pay enough attention at how their children spend time on the Internet.

The social media has become a powerful source that has a strong influence on our society. We live in a century when some random people from the Internet can tell us what to do and we will do that. Isn't an issue to think about?

You can find more information here.

Reference List:

BBC News. (2017). Blue Whale: Should you be worried about online pressure groups? - BBC News. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-39729819 

The Indian Express. (2017). The truth of ‘Blue Whale’ challenge: A game said to ‘brainwash’ teens into committing suicides. [online] Available at: http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/web-edits/blue-whale-suicide-challenge-fact-or-fiction-and-a-wake-up-call-4641835/