Photo for illustrative purposes.
The Blue Whale game is not available in South Africa yet, but parents should be vigilant, as it is expected to hit our shores soon, South Coast Herald reports.
A new game that has already resulted in 130 teen suicides will almost certainly reach South Africa in the next three months, experts say. The game originated in Russia, but it is now sweeping the world.
The Blue Whale app can be downloaded. An ‘administrator’ or ‘mentor’ then gives the player a task every day for the next 50 days, with the final task being suicide. Tasks include self-mutilation, watching horror movies, standing on the edge of the roof of a dangerously high building and listening to music that the ‘administrator’ sends.
The sickening tasks lead to sleep deprivation, brainwash players as the challenges grow darker and more severe, and on the last day, the exhausted and confused player is encouraged to commit suicide.
The player must take a photo of every completed task to prove to the administrator that it has been completed.
Parents are cautioned to monitor their children’s use of social media and their internet usage.
The game, invented by a 21-year-old Russian man, has been linked by a Russian newspaper to 130 deaths. Fifteen of the teens who killed themselves were ordered by the ‘administrator’ to delete all correspondence on their social media accounts.
READ MORE: Teen couple commits suicide after posting suicide note on Facebook
Many of the young teenage girls who died jumped from high buildings. The game administrator also instructs players to self-mutilate by carving whales on their bodies and to then post pictures on social media.
Budeikin, says he developed the app to “cleanse society” and that his victims were “happy to die”. He confessed to Russian authorities to inciting 16 girls, who he describes as “biological waste”, to kill themselves.
Budeikin has reportedly been inundated with love letters from teenage girls addressed to him at the Russian jail, where he is in custody, and police can’t legally prevent him from replying.
He said it “annoys him that there are a lot of imitators” out there.
At the moment he is being held by police in Russia.
The South African Depression and Anxiety Group (Sadag) says they are aware of the Blue Whale game. The group is monitoring the situation, but warns that parents should prepare and control their children’s access to the internet.
To contact a counsellor between 8am and 8pm Monday to Sunday, call: 011-234-4837. For an emergency call 0800-567-567. 24hr Helpline 0800 12 13 14 SMS 31393 (and they will call you back)
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– Caxton News Service
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