Blue Whale Challenge
[1][2] "Blue Whale" first attracted news coverage in May 2016 in an article in the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta that linked many unrelated child suicides to membership of group "F57" on the Russian-based VK social network.
[13][14][15] In November 2015, Renata Kambolina, a Russian teenager, posted a selfie with the caption "nya bye" before dying by suicide; her death was then discussed in internet forums and groups, becoming mixed with scare stories and folklore.
[16] While many experts suggest "Blue Whale" was originally a sensationalised hoax,[7][20][21] they believe that it is likely that the phenomenon has led to instances of imitative self-harming and copycat groups, leaving vulnerable children at risk of cyberbullying and online shaming.
"[7]American skeptic Ben Radford researched the phenomenon, calling it the "moral panic du jour" and equating it to the Dungeons & Dragons controversies of the 1980s.
[24] Radford also states "this is only the latest in a long series of similar moral panics and outrages shared on social media ... the best antidote ... is a healthy dose of skepticism".
Police in numerous other countries have issued warnings, including in Armenia,[27] Brazil,[28] France,[29] India,[30] New Zealand[31] and the United Kingdom.
[33][34][35] Although originally claiming innocence and stating he was "just having fun", Budeikin was arrested and held in Kresty Prison, Saint Petersburg, and in May 2016 pled guilty to "inciting at least 16 teenage girls to commit suicide".
[37] In June 2017, postman Ilya Sidorov was arrested in Moscow, also accused of setting up a "Blue Whale" group to encourage children to self-harm and ultimately die by suicide.
As a financial analyst, Nearonov has been described as a "very smart" computer expert who held a large amount of contempt for teenagers, believing that they were "wicked" and "deserved to die".
[43][44] BTRC released a notice urging people to call a specific number if any web link or any information related to the Blue Whale game were to be found.
[45][46] Later that month, the Bangladeshi High Court ordered a six-month ban on special night-time internet packages provided by various mobile operators across the country.
[47] Despite several news reports in Brazilian media linking cases of child self-harm and suicide with Blue Whale and several ongoing investigations, none have been officially confirmed.
[48][49][50] In response to the game, a designer and a publicity agent from São Paulo created a movement called Baleia Rosa (Pink Whale),[51] which became popular.
[52] Another movement, the Capivara Amarela (Yellow Capybara), was created by Sandro Sanfelice, and proposed to "combat the Blue Whale game" and guide people seeking some kind of help.
[53] An Adventist school in southern Paraná, in partnership with other education networks, also sought to reverse the situation by proposing another charity game, the "Jonas Challenge" (referring to the biblical character Jonah, who was swallowed by a whale and vomited up three days later).
In Belo Horizonte and Recife metropolitan area in Brazil, many schools promoted lectures to talk about the Blue Whale game.
[23] On May 21, 2017, it was announced that the Brazilian police Specialized in High Technology Crime Repression in Piauí were preparing a digital primer to warn young people about the dangers of the game.
In April 2018, Egyptian news sources claimed a 12-year-old schoolboy had killed himself by taking poisonous tablets to fulfill one of the challenges of the game.
[68] In Italy, press coverage of "Blue Whale" first appeared on 3 June 2016, in the newspaper La Stampa, which described the challenge as "a bad joke".
On 14 May 2017, a TV report by Le Iene about 'Blue Whale' on the national channel Italia 1[70] linked the challenge to an unconnected suicide in Livorno.
Paolo Attivissimo, a journalist and debunker of hoaxes, described the game as "a death myth dangerously exaggerated by sensationalist journalism".
On its website the Polizia Postale defines Blue Whale as "a practice that seems to possibly come from Russia" and offers advice to parents and teenagers.
[75] In July 2020, the Israeli Child Online Protection Bureau had announced they are collaborating with TikTok to "eradicate the Blue Whale phenomenon".
[31] A 22-year-old student, Federico Pedro Aguilera, was found dead with a stab wound to his chest in Coronel Bogado, Paraguay, with his death linked to the game.
A trial court in Sousse issued an interim judgment prohibiting Blue Whale and another supposed similar game named "Miriam".
