Will "the blue whale game" be the last aberration we have to see? Are there many steps to go down in this of the decadence of Humanity? I go further: is this news made up to make us waste time thinking about our fears, or is it really inciting teen suicide?
As you know (because since the end of April we are reading news about it), The Blue Whale Game has been spreading through Social Networks, in closed communities. It is significant that a week and a half ago, there were several results with the same name, using the Facebook search engine, and today I have only found other groups opposing what this "game" or macabre and absurd entertainment entails.
This is because various users of the social network denounced the pages, although those responsible for Facebook have not confirmed that they are responsible for the closure. In any case, Reporting abusive behavior and harmful information is a right of any Internet user, and I would say that it is also a duty (in favor of a healthy coexistence). On the other hand, you can read in the section "community rules", a specific review that explicitly prohibits the promotion of self-harm or suicidal behavior, so it is not surprising that they have been closed.
The game consists of 50 tests, which are "supervised" (if it is possible to use the term in this context). Those interested, join the communities, collect the indications, and organize themselves. At the rate of one challenge per day, the boys and girls who participate are asked to injure themselves (cutting or pricking themselves), to watch terrifying movies, to visit the train tracks, etc. This game reaches insane dimensions, when upon reaching test 26, the user receives news of what will be his death date, to be executed on the 50th, throwing himself into the void, from a tall building.
Is the Blue Whale game an urban legend?
In several Latin American countries, the police are trying to find out if some deaths by suicide have had to do with this game. In Russia, where the alarms went off a year ago, it happened that a newspaper article tried to link 80 suicides with the practice of gambling, although finally it could not be related with certainty.
Right now, we know that there are or have been groups on Facebook, and that in other countries they also make use of different social networks; We also know that its relationship with suicides may not be proven. Perhaps we have been carried away by an urban legend, although the truth is that the Russian Rina Palenkova, had supposedly played (before her suicide) and shared images of her progress in an Internet space called VK.
The images are not evidence, because although some have transpired, community managers are generally supposed to ask for them to be deleted once participation is demonstrated.
National Police Council
Know the risks to prevent them.
Some other cases have already happened in Spain, girls and boys in the first years of Secondary, and now admitted to Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Units. You may be a mother or father, and you are concerned about this issue, it would be logical, that is why we have brought a statement of the group of telematic crimes of the Civil Guard:
The "Blue Whale game" in question consists of carrying out 50 challenges in 50 days, of which they must demonstrate their achievement through photos and / or videos that testify to it.
Those responsible for this game, or similar communities, are experts in social engineering, having the ability to manipulate their victims thanks to the information that they have previously collected from them through their profiles on social networks. Information that can later also be used to threaten minors to prevent them from leaving the activity without the consent of the person who is manipulating them.
Among the challenges are those that the player must injure himself with cuts to the body, making inscriptions and / or drawings, cutting his lip, sitting in a place with a considerable height and sitting exposing part of the body to vacuum, staying awake for several days, continuous viewing of horror movies, etc.
The last test will consist of the player committing suicide by jumping into the void from a floor with considerable height.
Parents "accompanying" the digital growth of their children.
Recommend us from the Civil Guard, that we apply these tips, to avoid belonging to groups like those in the game:
- Check if the users with whom they contact, through social networks or any type of messaging, are really known and appropriate people to maintain contact with the minor.
- Also check if the groups that you frequent on social networks, or are added, are made up of people you know.
- Detect if they show self-harm, strange behaviors, or eating disorders or related to lack of sleep, some of the challenges to overcome are marked to be carried out at 4:20 a.m.
- Inculcate them about the danger of dating people they met online.
- Observe if he makes strange drawings related to a whale or any other symbol that could attract our attention.
And if you have come this far, it remains for me to ask you to follow closely in the footsteps of your daughters and your sons on the Internet, that you help them build critical thinking, and that you promote he listens to her and confidence at home. I would also like, that any that we find with inappropriate content, we had the determination to give the notice to the social network in question, even a technology brigade from the National Police o Servicio Marítimo Guardia Civil.