Entertainment or murder?

The Blue Whale ‘suicide game’ is believed to be an online social media game which is encouraging people to kill themselves. An administrator assigns daily tasks, such as self-harming, watching horror films and waking up at unusual hours. The tasks get progressively more extreme which the members have to complete for 50 days. On the last day, they are instructed to end their life.

130 teenage deaths in Russia between November 2015 and April 2016 have been linked to this game. Yulia Konstatinova, 15, joined her friend Veronica in jumping from the roof of a 14-storey block of flats. She left a note saying ‘End’ on her social media page after she posted a picture of a big blue whale. The game is making inroads into Europe. Teenagers in Portugal, Devon and Cornwall have been found to have accessed it.

It must take a certain special kind of a sick mind to create ‘games’ like this.

’13 Reasons why’ is a Netflix series about a teenage girl’s perplexing suicide followed by tapes to unravel the mystery of her tragic death. The haunting images in it and the traumatic content is inciting self-harm within the teenage community. It is highly controversial to introduce such material into the media.

Both the above are perfect examples of everything that goes against suicide prevention best practices in the media. They are intense and they romanticise suicide.

Parents beware. Young minds, be ware.

Ref:

Blue Whale:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/3003805/blue-whale-suicide-game-online-russia-victims/

13 reasons why:
https://www.netflix.com/in/title/80117470