Notorious online suicide game, Blue Whale Challenge, is a fear parents of teenage kids around the world are living in. So far, the game has claimed dozens of lives globally, and at least half a dozen lives within India as well. On the bright side, several teens who have attempted to kill themselves to complete the deadly challenge have also been rescued in the nick of time, thanks to observant family and friends.
But as is wont, there will always be those who will thoughtlessly use panic for personal gain. Yesterday, a 17-year-old boy from Kolkata reportedly tried to manipulate his girlfriend and stop her from dumping him by using the Blue Whale Challenge scare.
According to the Times of India report, the Class XII boy, who failed his higher secondary exams, posted an update on his Facebook wall on 6 September that read:
"I have carved a specific phrase, a F-32 along with a Blue Whale, on my arm. First task successfully completed."
On reading the post, the boy's girlfriend immediately intimated the cyber cell of the incident, who alerted the police to take immediate action.
"A student of a Jadavpur school had failed to clear his higher secondary exams this year. This led to a fallout and his girlfriend decided to dump him. He then had the idea of the Blue Whale and tried to scare her," TOI quoted police sources as saying.
Thankfully, the boy, who was counselled by experts after being rescued, accepted his mistake and said: "I was wrong in using the Blue Whale scare to my advantage. I had wanted to scare my girlfriend so that she does not leave me."
According to a Google Trends report of the last 12 months, Kolkata has the highest number of searches for the suicide game in the world.
A staggering seven Indian cities are among the top 10 in the world searching for the challenge on Google. Kolkata is followed by San Antonio (US), Nairobi (Kenya), Guwahati, Chennai, Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi, Howrah, and Paris (France).
Also on HuffPost India:
