A 13-year-old student took his own life on Tuesday after hanging himself in his room, a result of his engagement with a series of videos related to the deadly “Blue Whale” online challenge.
This game has sparked global controversy due to the danger it poses to adolescents.
The Blue Whale game, widely popular among youth and teenagers in Egypt and other Arab countries, has led to the death of many due to the temptations it offers through a series of “tasks.”
These tasks lead players to obey the game’s conditions, including hanging themselves, which results in death without awareness of what they are doing.
This is because the game is designed to temporarily cloud the mind while a specific task is being carried out.
A deadly game
The Blue Whale game is believed to have caused the death of 26 officially registered young people.
The Blue Whale game first appeared in Russia in 2013, with limited spread until 2016 when it became widespread among youth and adolescents there.
Subsequently, a number of suicides were linked to the game, causing widespread panic in Russia.
The creator of the game, reportedly a 21-year-old Russian named Philipp Budeikin, was accused of inciting around 16 teenage girls to commit suicide as part of the game’s challenges.
The Blue Whale game consists of 50 tasks aimed at teenagers between the ages of 12 and 16.
After a person registers to take on the challenge, they are asked to carve a whale on their arm with a sharp object. The tasks then follow one after another until players reach the main challenge, which is to take their own life in various ways.
Many have fallen victim to the game in Egypt, where nearly six young people and adolescents have lost their lives in less than a month because of the Blue Whale game.
This includes a 12-year-old boy who took his own life by hanging himself inside his bedroom in the city of al-Mahalla in Gharbiya Governorate, with the Blue Whale application reportedly found on his mobile phone at the time.
Other victims include Khaled al-Fakharani, the son of former parliamentarian Hamdi al-Fakharani; a girl in Alexandria who was found with a drawing of a blue whale on her leg; another case from Sharqiya Governorate who committed suicide by drowning; and a young man from Suez Governorate who attempted to burn his sisters and father while following the game’s instructions.
‘Real number is higher’
The former head of the West Delta branch for combating electronic crimes at the Ministry of Interior, Mohamed Mahrous stated that the number of officially registered deaths in Egypt from the Blue Whale game is 26, while the actual number of cases is several times the official figure.
Mahrous added that a child’s agreement to the game’s terms and conditions before starting to play weakens the family’s legal position after their death, especially since the child would have agreed to all the conditions before starting the deadly game.
He added: “I believe that any electronic game should be played by their parents first, so he can know the extent of its danger to the child, and parents must have full responsibility for protecting their children.”
He pointed out that in Russia, there are reportedly 130 deaths due to the Blue Whale game, making it the most affected country, while Egypt has 26 registered cases. He also warned of other electronic games that are more dangerous than the Blue Whale, such as PUBG, which can cause highly addictive dependencies.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
