The game was created by Philipp Budeikin, a former psychology student who was expelled from his university. Budeikin stated that his purpose was to "clean" the society by pushing to suicide to those he deemed as having no value. Blue Whale began in 2013 with "F57", one of the names of the so-called "death group" of the VKontakte social network. It is believed that the first case of suicide related to the game occurred in 2015 in Russia. The game also known as the Blue Whale suicide apparently as a reference to the way the largest mammal beaches and dies at the end.
A game called Blue Whale, in which an anonymous moderator gives participants a series of challenges to complete over 50 days. These are usually some form of self-harm, such as cutting an image of a whale into your arm. At the end of the 50 days, you are told to kill yourself. The name Blue Whale supposedly refers to a habit of whales who beach themselves and die. The agency reported that 130 recent suicides had been “linked” to this practice. The game is based in the relationship between the challengers (also called players or participants) and the administrators.
A new moral panic is working its way across Europe and will no doubt be seized on by North American media. Rumors have been doing global rounds about an application-based shadowy suicide challenge game “Blue Whale” that hacks into users’ phone and cannot be deleted. Many of the reports on this phenomenon claim that if you don’t complete the tasks, you are threatened with some kind of awful retaliation, usually a threat to reveal some kind of secret (which of course the moderator knows about, from having monitored your computer use). You are told that the moderator knows exactly where your live, because of your computer’s IP address.
Recent news reports claim that the game has been "discovered" by a school in the UK and that police forces in France and Belgium have warned parents about the game after Belgian police became aware of three incidents of the game in just one week. There are several shocking pictures of self harm and even jokes about the sick game once you click through. Some include pools of blood on the floor, while others appear to show a whale carved onto an arm.
If you'd like to talk to someone about suicide, there is free help available and someone willing to listen to you:
In the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted for free on 116 123, or visit Mind’s website.
In the US, call 1 (800) 273-TALK.
In Australia, Lifeline is on 13 11 14.
Hotlines in other countries can be found here.
0 التعليقات: