While there is no app of the Blue Whale challenge on any major app store, instructions to the challenge mainly spread through social media platforms. (Source: Twitter)
The deadly ‘Blue Whale’ internet challenge is striking teenagers in different parts of the country. The ‘game’, in which young participants play a series of challenges leading up to committing suicide, has alarmed parents across India and the world.
News agency IANS reported that a 19-year-old college student, Vignesh, was found hanging at home by his father in a case allegedly connected to the internet challenge. Vignesh, a second-year B.Com student, had a picture of a blue whale drawn on his hand thereby pointing the police to the ‘game.’ A note reading ‘Blue whale is not a game but danger and once entered you can never exit’ was recovered from his residence. Police say this is the first such case to be reported in Tamil Nadu.
In a separate incident, news agency ANI said a 17-year-old in Assam, who had a similar picture of a blue whale drawn on his hand, was admitted to a hospital in Guwahati after he showed ‘abnormal behaviour.’
Also read: All you need to know about the ‘Blue Whale’ challenge
Ramen Talukdar, Hospital Superintendent, told ANI that the class X student is being kept under close and constant observation by a team of doctors and psychiatrists.
On August 11, the Centre had instructed major internet companies like Google, Facebook, Instagram, Yahoo and Microsoft to delete all links of the ‘game’ from their platforms.
“Clear instructions have been issued to all the technology platforms that they must delink this game immediately because under the Indian IT ecosystem no initiative shall be permitted which provokes young boys to commit suicide. This is plainly unacceptable,” IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said.
While there is no app of the ‘game’ on any major app store, instructions to the challenge mainly spread through social media platforms. Suicide cases allegedly linked to the challenge have been reported from Kerala, Mumbai and West Bengal.
(With inputs from ANI and IANS)
