'Blue Whale' social media ‘suicide game

Marina9

The Living Force
FOTCM Member
There's something that has caught my eye in the past weeks. I've seen how media outlets are talking about this "suicide game." Just yesterday in RT in Spanish I read there was a second case of suicide that may be linked to this horrible "game". The thing is that some MSM are linking this to something that started in Russia, which makes me think about this ongoing war against Russia right? So I am having a bit of a struggle trying to understand this now, some media outlets are questioning if this really is going on... :huh:

The second case that RT in Spanish announced that may be linked to this in Spain:

https://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad/237924-segundo-caso-espana-ballena-azul


In the article it says that the girl between 13-14 years old had cuts on her arm related to the "blue whale."

And then some more information about this from a couple of weeks ago:

https://www.rt.com/uk/386456-blue-whale-suicide-warning/

British police & schools issue warning over 'Blue Whale' social media ‘suicide game’

A number of local police forces and schools have issued warnings to parents over a social media game called ‘Blue Whale’ that originated in Russia and has been linked to a number of teen suicides.

Nevertheless, a number of British police forces and schools cautioned parents to monitor their children’s use of social media to prevent the spread of the game.

Hertfordshire Police Constabulary advised local parents "to be vigilant and monitor children's internet usage," the BBC’s Newsbeat reports.

Similarly, a spokesperson from Devon and Cornwall Police Force posted on Twitter:

“Who ever created this horrible game is sick!

“Parents: Please be aware of this ‘game’ talk to your children about it if concerned.”

Woodlands School in Essex, which was informed about the suicide game by the local police authorities, sent parents a letter explaining the Blue Whale game and the risks involved, in an effort to prevent the spread of suicidal practices among schoolchildren.

"There's no evidence to say anything untoward is going on with the Blue Whale challenge in our school, but we feel it's best to keep parents and carers informed," deputy principal David Wright told Newsbeat.

"We [want to] make sure they can help us. We've all got a duty of care for our young people."

The Blue Whale challenge allegedly involves vulnerable teenagers being contacted by the game’s ‘curator’ on social media and provoked into completing a number of tasks over the course of 50 days.

These involve watching horror videos all day, cutting all relationships with family and friends, and various forms of self-harm that must be filmed and sent to the curator for confirmation that the challenge is completed.

The game supposedly culminates in supervisors asking participants to commit suicide.

Teens were also threatened if they refused to comply with the requests, as their curators use IP trackers to identify where the victims actually live.

It is unclear whether Blue Whale is just an urban legend or an actual suicide game promoted by death cults on social media.

The challenge was indirectly linked to the suicide of three teenagers in Russia, when Veronika Volkova, 16, and Yulia Konstantinova, 15, jumped to their deaths from the roof of an apartment, while Renata Kambolina, 16, died by placing her head on a railway line.

Shortly before her death, Konstantinova published a picture of a blue whale on a Russian social platform.

An administrator of the group, which allegedly came up with and then actively promoted the challenge, was recently arrested on suspicion of encouraging suicide.

Speaking to Russian investigators, the defendant said that he “was filtering the bio-garbage.”

“A normal person would not commit suicide, but if they are not right in the head it is better [that they kill themselves] now rather than taking the wheel of the lorry- realizing that their life is sh*t – and crashing into scores of people,” he told Russian police.

There are reports of the game spreading further to Europe.

The Daily Mail reports that a Spanish teenager was recently hospitalised allegedly after participating in the Blue Whale challenge.

Apparently there has been around 130 suicides in one year linked to this... It's something confusing and I can't quite understand completely. Allegedly the admin of this group on VK is called Philip Budeykina. The suicides are actually happenning, but there's no concise information of wether they are linked to this or not..

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/92362730/warning-over-blue-whale-game-encouraging-young-people-to-take-their-own-lives

Media reports in Russia say police have been investigating reports the game is linked to dozens of youth suicides, but no direct evidence has been found

Some more information on this:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4264838/Teenagers-committing-suicide-social-media-GAME.html
http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/web-edits/blue-whale-suicide-challenge-fact-or-fiction-and-a-wake-up-call-4641835/
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11852096
 
As far as I know "VK" is the russian equivalent of Facebook. I read a couple of the links and the story is indeed confusing. I can't quite make out how or what this "blue whale game" actually is, or where it can be found to begin with.

From scanning the stories, it could be just a "sensationalistic story" that has no basis in reality. In one article, they say that that game happens in many social networks and thus logically speaking one would think not only in VK. So how they can say that is originated in russia, I dunno.

If such a thing is happening, it sounds like one or a couple psychos are using this game via social networks to harm children. What this has to do with russia per se, even if those persons would come from russia, I don't understand.
 
Marina9 said:
Apparently there has been around 130 suicides in one year linked to this... It's something confusing and I can't quite understand completely. Allegedly the admin of this group on VK is called Philip Budeykina. The suicides are actually happenning, but there's no concise information of wether they are linked to this or not..

Thanks for sharing, Marina9. It's a very creepy story indeed.

One article that I could find in Russian is dated 17 May 2016, and it says that the admin's nick is Philip Lis (Philip Fox in English). The article is very long (it's a journalist's investigation) and contains a lot of details, but it is also very confusing. After reading the entire article, it's still unclear what is really going on. You might wish to read the article with the help of a machine translator. Hope this helps, fwiw.
 
Некоторое время назад в СМИ в России осветили деятельность этих "китов" и, видимо, стала очевидна опасность всего этого. Организатор (некий Филип Будейкин "Лис") оказался под арестом.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbjiY7FFKC0

Translation
Some time ago the media in Russia reported about the activities of these "whales" and, apparently, was the obvious danger of it all. Coordinator (a Philip Bodykin "Fox") was arrested.
 
There are a few articles up on Sott about the story. The first one gives a decent explanation from a journalist who tried to join one of these groups undercover as a teen:

Teen 'suicide games' send shudders through Russia

Online suicide game "Blue Whale Challenge" spreads to France

British police & schools sound warning over 'Blue Whale' social media 'suicide game'

Really disturbing stuff. It reminds me a bit of Amanda Todd's suicide. Her suicide wasn't a part of a game, but it did stem from an initial online encounter with a predator who used similar threats and tactics.

Cyber-bully faces extradition to Canada in Amanda Todd case
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39485930

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_of_Amanda_Todd

She made a video about her bullying and posted it on youtube before killing herself. Such a sad story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gycqAJcDFM
 
An other article from "le Monde":
But where does this "game" come from? Novaya Gazeta, the first media to have investigated, has noted the existence of "death groups" on social networks in Russia for years (the newspaper was called into question following the publication. Evinced from the investigation department, promised one of the leaders of the challenge a certain indulgence on the part of the investigators.) The deputy editor-in-chief had been dismissed.

The daily evokes a sordid story, the origin of which dates back to November 2015. On a VKontakte community, baptized "f57", where images of mutilation were shared, is published the picture of a teenager. It is Irina Kambaline, alias "Rina". She committed suicide a few hours earlier by throwing herself under a train. The girl, who was familiar with family problems, had just parted from her boyfriend. But soon, a short story: Irina would be the first victim of a mysterious "game", the Blue Whale Challenge.

Other groups similar to "f57" are then created. They begin to maintain a real post-mortem cult around "Rina", and the game. For example, "Sea of ​​whales" or "f57Terminal5751"
_http://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/article/2017/03/15/blue-whale-challenge-itineraire-d-une-legende-urbaine-sur-internet_5094540_4408996.html

Which brought me to these two videos, one in russian and the other in spanish (the subtitles can help):

 
After watching a documentary in russian, my conclusion is that the game is very real, it spread across Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and now it seems it reached western Europe. The game was and is being spread by psychopathic monsters who manipulate young children, driving the most vulnerable ones to commit suicide, it makes me mad as hell that such monsters get away with it...
 
I read about this "game" on SOTT more than a month ago, and it was the first I heard of it. I was hoping it was just a rumor, but unfortunately, it seems to exist and apparently, a few teenages lost their lives already because of it. I keep reading more about it these days, even the Greek media have been mentioning it this month, and the police authorities have come up with a list of warning signs for parents to be aware of regarding their teenagers (i.e. self mutilation, carvings of symbols and words that are part of the "challenges" in the "game", risky behavior etc) and contact numbers, even when they have the slighest suspicion that their kid might be involved in it.

Andre' said:
After watching a documentary in russian, my conclusion is that the game is very real, it spread across Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and now it seems it reached western Europe. The game was and is being spread by psychopathic monsters who manipulate young children, driving the most vulnerable ones to commit suicide, it makes me mad as hell that such monsters get away with it...

Exactly. It is maddening and extremely sad. What kind of a world are we living in where the psychos are free to torture and ultimately kill our youngsters, and what life have we given to these teenagers, what education, what type of aspirations, what values, that they can allow themselves to be manipulated like this, to feel that their lives have so little worth that they are willing to give them away like that... Just a rhetorical question, we here at least have an idea, but still... it is shocking.
 
Thank you everyone for the additional information provided. I hadn't read the articles published on SOTT before and while watching the video attached to one of the articles it gave me the chills :(

Alana said:
I read about this "game" on SOTT more than a month ago, and it was the first I heard of it. I was hoping it was just a rumor, but unfortunately, it seems to exist and apparently, a few teenages lost their lives already because of it. I keep reading more about it these days, even the Greek media have been mentioning it this month, and the police authorities have come up with a list of warning signs for parents to be aware of regarding their teenagers (i.e. self mutilation, carvings of symbols and words that are part of the "challenges" in the "game", risky behavior etc) and contact numbers, even when they have the slighest suspicion that their kid might be involved in it.

Andre' said:
After watching a documentary in russian, my conclusion is that the game is very real, it spread across Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and now it seems it reached western Europe. The game was and is being spread by psychopathic monsters who manipulate young children, driving the most vulnerable ones to commit suicide, it makes me mad as hell that such monsters get away with it...

Exactly. It is maddening and extremely sad. What kind of a world are we living in where the psychos are free to torture and ultimately kill our youngsters, and what life have we given to these teenagers, what education, what type of aspirations, what values, that they can allow themselves to be manipulated like this, to feel that their lives have so little worth that they are willing to give them away like that... Just a rhetorical question, we here at least have an idea, but still... it is shocking.

Yes, it is very shocking and extremely sad to see this is happening. While reading all these articles on the topic I was thinking how our world is falling apart in every sense. Also the dangers of social media for teens. I remember when I was in my early teens and the whole internet thing started my mom used to schedule my times of being online. Which takes me to another topic, the lack of connection between the families in these days, not saying it's like this for every single family, or that it is the only cause this happens, but we can see now how parents just buy tablets or computers as the nanny's for their kids, even from very very young ages :/

Also another thing I was looking at is how media are handling this news, just a couple of them go deeper into the whole situation, but the majority is just giving the news and statistics, with a lot of confusing things also. Talking about suicide is not an easy task and there are a lot of things to take into consideration, IMO. But seeing more of these cases on the news is just truly sad :(
 
I live in a small town in Italy, and the Blue Whale craze has shown up here too. Just last week one or more 12-13 y.old boys were found with several cuts on their forearms, and spotted by their parents waking up during the night watching weird stuff on their cellphones. The phones have been sent to local authorities in a bigger center for forensics. I know one of the parents personally. The situation is real and very sad!
 
I'm in a reasonably small town in Colorado, USA. The elementary schools here sent a warning to parents home with the kids a few weeks ago about this game. A few weeks before that, a boy of 14 killed himself but I don't know if its related. :(
 
dantem said:
I live in a small town in Italy, and the Blue Whale craze has shown up here too. Just last week one or more 12-13 y.old boys were found with several cuts on their forearms, and spotted by their parents waking up during the night watching weird stuff on their cellphones. The phones have been sent to local authorities in a bigger center for forensics. I know one of the parents personally. The situation is real and very sad!
SummerLite said:
I'm in a reasonably small town in Colorado, USA. The elementary schools here sent a warning to parents home with the kids a few weeks ago about this game. A few weeks before that, a boy of 14 killed himself but I don't know if its related. :(

It is very sad :( I haven't' seen any news about this lately. But what caught my eye was a recent event in Peru, from a man who committed suicide imitating a show Netflix launched called "13 reasons why," of a girl who committed suicide and left 13 tapes behind telling her story.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4584926/Peruvian-man-23-kills-leaves-tapes-behind.html

The thing that caught my eye also with the whole Blue Whale situation, was that even if it has been going around for about one year, more news about it was going around at more or less the same time a bunch of media were talking about this new series on Netflix. I watched it and it was very tense, couldn't watch a whole episode in one sit cause it was too much. But media were talking about that yes, of course it is not a good thing to see for people struggling with these thoughts, but on the other hand some were saying it could be a tool for schools, parents, etc, to help kids nowadays, with all the bullying and other things going on in these days.. :huh:
 
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