Blue Whale challenge: Delhi woman's viral Facebook post warning about the game is problematic

Ever since the Blue Whale challenge began making headlines in India, there has been a lot of misinformation doing the rounds on social media platforms and instant messaging applications. It's unsurprising to see people spreading rumours about something they haven't understood well; more so when it's about a phenomenon that has the potential to kill innocent teenagers. But what is equally sad is to see the lack of genuine interest in journalists, police and government officials to comprehend the Blue Whale challenge, how it works and how it could be prevented.

I say this because I've seen media reports deliberately bringing the Blue Whale challenge angle to suicide cases from across the country only to get a few more clicks, the police being in denial about the role of the phenomenon in almost all the cases reported from India, and state and central governments issuing illogical orders that only made them look clueless.

On August 23, a Delhi-based journalist made a Facebook post to warn people about the Blue Whale challenge "entering" Indian households. The post has, by now, been shared more than 1,00,000 times. While I appreciate her intent to spread awareness about the deadly challenge, I have an issue with the information — most of which seems to have been acquired from rumours. I also have an issue with the unsolicited advice she has given in the post, supported by videos, and these stem from sheer unawareness and I have an issue with the message being shared so widely.

The viral Facebook post talks about the journalist’s 7-year-old niece, a Class 1 student, who is so adept at using an Android smartphone that she knows how to download applications from Google Playstore and run them. She then goes on to narrate how her niece categorically enquired about the Blue Whale “game” and how she was amazed and shocked that a 7-year-old was aware of the challenge.

All fine till there. What upsets me is what came after that.

Calling it a trick, the journalist then explains how she told her 7-year-old niece that it’s a “game” that deals with “bhooth” (ghost) and says that the “trick” worked. What was the result? The poor child was scared out of her wits.

In the Facebook post, she writes, “After that she started howling and crying about her mistake of downloading this game, as she thought now the ghost will haunt her. We got scared that she might have started playing this game. We checked all the devices at home and got to know that she downloaded this game on her fathers phone.”

That is the issue. Scaring a 7-year-old child with a ghost reference to the extent that the child is “howling and crying” — quite clear from the videos — may scar the tender mind for life. Towards the end of the post, she advises others to use the same trick to keep the children safe. I say please don't.

Better understanding of the Blue Whale challenge and the psychology behind it would have prevented this particular journalist and many others from coming up with such an illogical and dangerous solution to ensure the safety of children.

The Blue Whale challenge is a phenomenon that anchors its success on the awareness that teenagers and young adults — immature ones — are easily impressionable and could be driven into performing risky tasks that would boost their self-esteem and confidence. There are no applications for the Blue Whale challenge that can be downloaded to smart devices, and the one the journalist’s niece downloaded could be the one called “Guide for Blue Whale Prank” that just has text content about the origin of the challenge and a few news reports.

The Blue Whale challenge requires a curator, someone who’d spot willing candidates, mostly based on their judgment about the person looking at various social media profiles and what they share, and a one-to-one interaction between the curator and the eager participant.

The chances of children below 10-12 years of age chatting with a stranger over a smart device — taking in all the negativity that curators feed them and further choosing to do tasks like travelling alone, waking up at 4.20AM to listen to the disturbing music they send, watching the horror movies they send, cutting themselves, isolating themselves, believing that there is no hope and life is worthless and finally killing themselves — are minuscule compared to the vulnerability of teenagers who suddenly come across an audience to whom they could prove their guts, and prove what they are capable of doing to themselves and end up killing themselves.

A similar case of a 10-year-old child from Lucknow being frightened to the point that he had to seek psychiatric help was reported by India Today. In that case too, the kid had learned about the challenge at school and possibly tried to browse some videos on his mother’s phone. Smita Srivastav, consultant psychiatrist, to whom the kid was taken, told India Today that the child was undergoing fear psychosis. 

Various reports on the Blue Whale challenge have led to panic being spread, I understand, but they have failed to initiate a conversation about mental health and the ample care — from parents and teachers — that young minds need and deserve. Elders are falling for what the government fell for - unthoughtful admonition.

That’s not how the encroachment of the Blue Whale challenge can be tackled.

The only way out of the menace that is the Blue Whale challenge is engaging in kind, open conversations with children as well as elders.

Also read - Blue whale: Why the online suicide challenge seems all too familiar