Madras HC Asks Govt to Explore Banning Blue Whale Challenge

The Madras High court has directed the Central and Tamil Nadu governments to explore possibilities of banning the infamous blue whale challenge. Justices KK Sasidharan and G R Swaminathan issued a notice to the Union Information and Broadcasting Secretary and state Home Secretary and IT department, with several suggestions.

The said challenge is an online suicide game. The players need to undertake certain tasks and complete them within a window of 50 days and the final task leads them to commit suicide. Two students in Chennai and Puducherry had committed suicide last week due to the game.

The Madurai bench suggested that the government take help from IIT Madras to seek ways to block the game. It has also directed the state’s police chief and home secretary to issue a strict warning to anyone who shares the game.

The Madurai boy who had committed suicide, had shared the game with 75 others before the incident.“You can enter it, but cannot exit the game,” the 19-year-old from Madurai said in his suicide note.

The court also said that schools and parents should counsel students about creating awareness about the dangerous game. Local advocate, Krishnamurthy, had appealed to the court to direct the central government to ban the game.

The game has already caused 150 deaths in Russia. It is spreading via social media. And some of the tasks including watching horror movies all day long, cutting your lip, and other forms of self-harm.

Chennai police have issued an advisory to the parents asking then to track their kids’ social media activity.

The Blue Whale Challenge is becoming more of a threat daily. Last night a 17-year-old girl, who had carved a whale on her arm, was rescued in Jodhpur after she tried to jump into a lake as part of the deadly Blue Whale Challenge. The girl said if she failed to complete her task, then the game’s administrators had threatened that her mother would die. 

Also Read: Blue Whale Challenge: Indore Boy Tries To Commit Suicide