Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev at the Indian Express Idea Exchange in Noida (Express photo by Praveen Khanna)
Renowned yogi and author Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev said a blue whale belongs in the ocean, not in a computer when asked about the dangerous Internet ‘game’ that persuades young people to take their lives at the end of a series of challenges.
“Blue whale should be in the ocean. They shouldn’t be in a computer (laughs). And many, many games like this. I don’t know. I have never played a game like this. I play games outside, on the field, not on the computer. So whatever these games are, if they are destructive, either to the child’s body or his mind, I think we must take a call, in the name of freedom, we are destroying the future of our children,” Sadhguru Vasudev told indianexpress.com on Wednesday.
“I think it’s important, below a certain age, what they are exposed, what they are not exposed to must be determined by the parents. But if the parents are not responsible enough, maybe it has to be determined by the administration. I know this looks like a retrogade step because I have seen children in the United States and other countries where parents come crying to me what state the children are in. There’s simply no way to fix them. So this should not happen to any child. So whatever preventive has to be done, has to be done. After they are 18 years of age, it’s their choice, but at an early age what we expose them to is definitely an adult responsibility. You can’t leave it on a child and say, okay you did it,” he added.
In the Blue Whale challenge, online participants are asked by the curator or the administrators to complete a set of tasks over a 50-day period. While the initial tasks are harmless such as watching a horror movie or listening to music, the challenge results in the participants being eventually asked to kill themselves. While there is no official game on an app store for download, administrators send participants an APK or through links on social media. Across the world and even in India, some deaths of youngsters are being attributed to the challenge even though individual verification hasn’t happened yet. Relatives of the participant attest to seeing them complete the tasks.
School authorities in US and Europe have been communicating to parents about how harmful the challenge is. In India, the government has asked Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Yahoo and other platforms to immediately remove links of the deadly game. Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi has appealed to parents to dissuade their children from taking part in such challenges.
