Blue Whale Claims Life In Madurai, Forces Student To Final Stage In Assam 

With the online killer game Blue Whale spreading its tentacles fast, Assam Police on Wednesday issued an advisory to parents and elders of families to monitor and regulate the online surfing activity of their children.

The advisory came a day after the police in Assam's capital town unearthed a case suspected to have been related with the fatal addiction of the online game Blue Whale, which has killed many across the globe.

According to police, the Class X student was admitted to the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital on Tuesday night after he was injured while allegedly trying to complete the final stage of the controversial online game.

Teachers of the boy had alerted the parents after observing some changes in his behaviour and noticing a picture of a whale carved on his arm.

"Recently, a few online games have become popular among youth who are glued to their mobiles, computers and are addicted to excessive video gaming. Some such harmful games, like 'Blue Whale', 'A Silent House', 'Sea of Whales', 'Wake Me Up at 4:20 AM' etc., involve emotional and psychological conditioning of the players.

"The administrators of these games assign some challenges to the participants like watching horror movies, self harming, poking a needle to the arm or leg, standing on a bridge or roof, listening to music, carving fish sign on the forearm, etc.," said the police advisory, adding that the final task assigned was to commit suicide or homicide.

"The victims are asked to share the photographs of completion of these tasks in social media, like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, SnapChat etc.," police said.

Saying that most of these cases normally involve teenagers between 13 and 19 years of age, Assam Police have advised all parents, teachers, guardians and the members of civil society to be vigilant about such cases.

"The parents and elders in the family are advised to monitor and regulate the online surfing activity of their minor children. Certain 'Parent Monitoring' apps or software available via internet may be used to keep a check on the surfing or download history by children. Teachers and civil society are appealed to encourage open discussion about cyber and social media awareness among children," it said.

Madurai Teen Leaves Note Saying 'You Can't Exit Once You Enter' Before Hanging Himself

A college student committed suicide by hanging himself after he reportedly took up the Blue Whale Challenge.

The Blue Whale Challenge has seemingly claimed a life in Tamil Nadu's Madurai. A 19-year-old college student from Thirumangalam -- Vignesh -- committed suicide by hanging himself on Wednesday. Vignesh was a second year student at Mannar College in Madurai. He was found hanging around 4:15 pm.

Police confirmed the image of a whale carved on Vignesh's left forearm with a blade and the words "Blue Whale" were written beneath it.

A note was also recovered from the spot which said, "Blue Whale- This is not a game but danger. Once you enter, you can never exit".

Vignesh's friends told the police that they saw him attempting the Blue Whale Challenge on his phone. Since there are no applications or website for the challenge, friends would have meant they saw Vignesh using his phone more than usual because the challenge involves conversing with a curator over messages, or sometimes, calls.

Tamil Nadu Police had recently released a circular asking parents to keep an eye for children attempting the Blue Whale Challenge on the computer or their phones and to monitor their behaviour.

WHAT THE BLUE WHALE CHALLENGE IS

The Blue Whale Challenge -- a dare-based "game" that requires participants to complete 50 tasks in 50 days, and the ultimate task being committing suicide by jumping of a high-rise -- originated in Russia in 2013. The creator of the challenge, Philipp Budeikin, was arrested in May and sentenced to three years in prison. He had confessed, in an interview, that he deliberately incited 17 teenagers into committing suicide. Philipp, 22, said that he was eliminating people 'who do not represent any value, cause harm or will cause harm to the society' from the face of the Earth.

The Blue Whale Challenge, at least when it originated, had a curator who gets in touch with people who are curious about the game and posts from their social media accounts asking to be found. They use different hashtags for this purpose. Once the curator stalks those who posts with these hashtags and realises they're vulnerable, they talk to these people, mostly teenagers, in private messages.

Teenagers take up the challenge to prove a point to themselves and to their peers. Many think they will stop taking the tasks if the curator asks them to do dangerous deeds like jumping into a river despite not knowing how to swim, but usually they don't succeed in avoiding the urge to do the task.

Tasks range from listening to certain songs (we have heard some, and it's quite disturbing when listened to on loop) at 4 20 AM, isolating oneself, cutting oneself, travelling alone, watching horror clips, movies curators send at 4 20 AM, talking to fellow players over Skype, spending time in cemeteries, accepting one is about to die, accepting the date the curator says one will die on, and finally jumping off a high-rise killing oneself.

17-Year-Old Worldwide Mastermind Of The Suicide Challenge Arrested

A 17-year-old girl in Russia has been arrested on the charges of being the mastermind behind the infamous Blue Whale Challenge.

An unnamed Russian teenager has been accused of heading multiple groups operated under the name of Blue Whale Challenge.

Reports say she is responsible for threatening multiple victims with death if they failed or refused to complete the tasks of the challenge, which end in suicide.

Russian state investigators said the girl, also known as the 'death group administrator', was originally a player of the Blue Whale Challenge. However, she did not finish the challenge all the way to suicide, and ended up becoming an 'admin' of the game instead.

"This administrator was sending particular tasks, often life-threatening, to each of several dozen members of the group," a Metro report quotes Colonel Irina Volk, Russian Interior Ministry.

"In contrast to similar groups, teenagers in this group were blackmailed with death threats against them or their relatives for not completing the tasks," the official added.

The 17-year-old girl has been accused of setting the 50 tasks of the Blue Whale Blue Whale Challenge to the victims, which 'create psychologically traumatising situations', and end with the victim committing suicide.

The girl was arrested from Russia's Khabarovsk Krai region.

The Blue Whale Challenge's creator, 22-year-old Philipp Budeikin was arrested in Russia earlier this year and sentenced to three years in prison. But despite him being behind the bars, the challenge continued to claim lives across the world.

With this girl's arrested, it becomes apparent the game continued to gain traction because of the change of power.