The way deadly games like the Blue Whale Challenge that have been beguiling teenagers, addicted to the social media, into death trap, is a grave warning to the society
Subimal Bhattacharjee
Recently there have been concerns globally at the online dangerous game called Blue Whale Challenge which comprised of a series of tasks assigned to players by administrators during a 50-day period, including some physical tasks that include body cuts and self-mutilation and the final challenge forcing the player to commit suicide. More than 130 deaths have been reported from across the globe since 2015, due to this sinister game that recklessly spreads via social media and under the irresponsible watch of the social media giants. Even in India, at least four deaths have been reported and the Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad promptly ensured that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) under him in the central government sends a letter to most of the internet content providers like Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Microsoft and Yahoo to immediately remove the links of this online game.
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A public interest litigation was also filed in the Delhi High Court on August 16 this year against Blue Whale seeking immediate directions to restrain these internet and social media majors from uploading contents related to the Blue Whale challenge and seeking directions to the Delhi Police to appoint a special team to oversee whether the internet companies comply with the court’s orders. Likewise, the Chief Justice of India on the same day had remarked how the Blue Whale challenge was a clear instance of human gullibility while he was hearing the Kerala ‘love jihad’ case. It evokes fear to note that Philip Budeikin, the self-claimed founder of the game in 2013, has pleaded guilty to inciting at least 16 teenage girls to commit suicide with this game in play.
The fact remains that while the internet and social media has brought in revolutionary changes in which humans communicate and participate, it has also become an unwanted pain in many cases. Suddenly, many sections of the society find vulnerabilities erupting that not only impact social values but also lead to violence and deaths. Online games have become a menace in many cases and besides, the Blue Whale challenge, there have been other deadly games like the Ghost Pepper Challenge, the Ice and Salt challenge and the Choking challenge that have created serious troubles among children and young minds. More than 2000 lives are lost to such sinister online games every year and they are becoming more challenging with the passage of time. Children and teenagers are becoming major victims of such addictions and today it is becoming difficult for parents to keep a complete watch on the online browsing habits of their children. Many of these games are not downloadable games but via secretive groups and networks into the social media. Needless to say for many parents today the concern is if they should stop, control and monitor their children from using the internet and also counsel them about the dangers. However, such counseling is not always effective as among the growing-up children there is a tendency to defy what the parents say and in many cases, teenagers find it easy to browse outside home as well.
It is thus crucial to consider seriously the need for better family values and awareness drives against the threats from much unwanted online content. The internet was invented and grew exponentially because of the free and open nature of the medium and this is being misused and abused by many anti-socials and reckless elements that even law enforcement efforts sometimes fail to weed out such unwanted content permanently. The only way to tackle such
situations is better parental and family value inculcation, a balanced watch on children’s browsing habits including permanently blocking some sites and reviewing it from time to time. There are concerns in many cases where parents fail to give adequate attention to their children leading them to taking recourse to wrong company and nowadays on the internet. At the same time, the children also need to listen and respect parents and elders as has been a cardinal feature of Indian families and value system. However only efforts at home will not help, even schools and other community avenues have to proactively run and participate in
campaigns that make online browsing a safe effort. Besides these, the social media companies have to go beyond their refuge of their defined terms and conditions and prevent all forms of unwanted contents from being uploaded or facilitated through their networks. Illegal games and dangerous games cannot wreak havoc as it is on now.
Even the legal ecosystem and the law enforcement regime need to be very active in this space and enact laws that deter such content that depraves the mind or causes harm both mental and physical to vulnerable sections. Clearly, many more versions of the game or other games will surface under various names and not all such content can be weeded out in one go. But in the current case, it will be prudent to link the availability of the game to abetment to suicides as defined under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code and the content creators, as well as the social media who facilitate such games, should be covered and as abetment to suicide is criminal offence under Indian laws and in almost all jurisdictions, the online availability and spread could thus be significantly checked.
The saga of the deadly online games definitely is a challenge for society and technology community alike. It needs to be addressed with confabulations and understanding of how to manage and control the menace. Clearly, self- regulations is the need of all the stakeholders to maintain and allow the internet to remain a safe medium.
(The writer is a defence and cyber security analyst)
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