18/08/2017
PUNE:
The
deadly 'Blue Whale Challenge', an online game which urges players to fulfil
self-harming challenges resulting in suicide, has already claimed a few victims
across the country, alarming the authorities. In a bid to stop it, the
government has directed social media and internet companies such as
Facebook, Google and Microsoft to immediately remove the game, which has
claimed 100 lives across the world, from their platforms.
In an August 11 letter to Google India,
Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Microsoft India and Yahoo India, the
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has instructed, “It is
understood that an administrator of the game uses social media platforms to
invite/incite children to play this game, which may eventually lead the child
to take extreme steps for self-inflicting injuries, including suicide.”
The ministry directed the companies to ensure that
any such link of this deadly game in its own name or any similar game was
immediately removed from their platforms and the proponent of this game should
be reported to law enforcement agencies. The trend of this game becoming
popular in the country first came to light when a 14-year-old boy jumped off
the fifth floor of a building in Mumbai earlier this month.
According to the police, his friends linked the
death to the Blue Whale Challenge. Last week, the staff of a Dehradun
school stopped a student from killing himself whereas in another incident, Pune
police rescued a boy who was on his way to completing the challenge.
The latest casualty to the game is believed to be a Class 10 student from Paschim Medinipur district in West Bengal, who allegedly committed suicide last week.
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