After a spate of suicide attempts by Indian teens, New Delhi has banned the Blue Whale online game, which assigns a series of challenges to its players, the final one being jumping off a building.
A directive was issued on August 11 to all internet platforms, including Google India, Facebook, WhatsApp, Yahoo India, Instagram and Microsoft India, asking them to take measures against it.
The Union Ministry of Electronics and IT, led by Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, issued the order, which read, “Instances of children committing suicide have been reported in India… You are hereby requested to ensure that any such links of this deadly game in its own name or similar game is immediately removed from your platform.”
On Monday, Union Minister of Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi wrote to the Union ministries of Home and Information Technology, asking them to ban the deadly game.
Blue Whale is a 50-day challenge that is believed to have originated in Russia. A series of tasks are assigned to players by the game administrators, each one potentially fatal, with the final challenge requiring the player to commit suicide by jumping off a building.