HC raises questions on youngsters playing Blue Whale

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday raised questions over youngsters committing suicide while playing the Blue Whale Challenge online game, asking how people are getting influenced by it.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar was hearing a plea seeking a direction to restrain companies -- including Google, Facebook and Yahoo -- from uploading any material pertaining to the Blue Whale Challenge and listed the matter for hearing on August 22.

The game, reportedly created by a former convict in Russia, psychologically stimulates the players to indulge in daring, self-destructive tasks for 50 days before finally taking the "winning" step of killing themselves. Each task must be filmed and shared as proof.

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On July 30, a 14-year-old schoolboy Manpreet Singh Sahani walked off the fifth floor of his residential building in Mumbai, while a former Manipur minister's son died after falling from a terrace in Delhi recently. The Blue Whale game is suspected behind both the deaths.

Also, a teenager in Kerala hanged himself to death allegedly while completing a Blue Whale challenge.

The court has asked the petitioner, advocate Gurmeet Singh, to apprise it of any such incidents in Delhi.

The petitioner has also sought a direction to the Delhi Police to appoint a special five-member team to oversee whether the internet companies comply with the court's direction.

IANS