A 15-year-old boy in Pune recently ended his life by jumping from the 14th floor of his building at 1 AM. He had been struggling with Blue Whale game addiction for the past six months, during which he became increasingly reclusive. He spent entire days alone in his room and developed a disturbing fascination with death-related music, which he played at high volumes. On the night of July 26, after spending the day playing games due to school closures from heavy rainfall, the boy jumped from the building. Despite repeated calls from his parents to join them for dinner, he initially came out of his room but soon retreated.
Meanwhile, his parents were focused on caring for his younger sibling, who had a fever. Late at night, as the fever persisted, the mother saw a message in the apartment complex’s WhatsApp group about a child injured from a fall.The message sent a chill down the mother’s spine, prompting her to check immediately. To her horror, she discovered her own son lying injured on the ground. Despite rushing him to the hospital, it was too late. At home, a note written in gaming codes was found, but its exact meaning and intentions are still under investigation by the Pimpri-Chinchwad police.
The "Blue Whale" challenge is a peer group game that's played via Russian social networking site called "V Kontakte" - which is similar to Facebook. People have to open a profile on the site and then search for "curators" who will invite or lead them into the challenge. Often, people leave messages on their page seeking help to play the game stating how depressed they are and they want to "liberate" themselves. Such messages are generally accompanied by hash tags like #BlueWhale, #IAmAWhale etc. After carefully going through such messages, they chose players and touch base with them. First they interact with them to understand their mental state, then a few tasks are given to check how eager the person is. The person is then required to post snaps of completed tasks. Only after this initial checking are people allowed to enter the peer group to play the suicidal game.