NEW DELHI: The dangers of the online “game” Blue Whale, believed to push participants towards suicide, have been revealed by the national child helpline, that received 39 calls last year from children entrapped by a challenge posed by a dominating administrator.
In September 2017, helpline 1098 received a call that two 15-year old girls from Agra had been rescued at
Hoshangabad railway station in Madhya Pradesh. They were running away to Mumbai to deliver on a “task” assigned by the administrator of the game.
The girls told a counsellor that the game administrator threatened them that if they quit the game, they would lose their parents.
All 39 similar calls from children to 1098 in 2017-18 revealed a link with the
Blue Whale Challenge. Some called to deal with the fear generated by the game, others were children in distress requiring physical intervention and then there were those seeking information about the game.
The case studies form part of the 187 complaints of online abuse reported to Childline.
These cases include videos with child sexual abuse material,
corporal punishment depictions, pornography and stalking. In 2016-17, Childline received 57 cases of online abuse and the last year saw this number increase to 187. The highest percentage of cases reported to 1098 are of children in the age group of 11-18 years.
“In most of the cases of online abuse that are coming to 1098 there is a common thread -either online abuse ended in contact abuse or vice versa,” Harleen Walia from Childline told TOI. The counsellors highlight that awareness regarding online safety is limited among victims as well as care-givers and service providers.
All 39 similar calls from children to 1098 in 2017-18 revealed a link with the Blue Whale Challenge.
