An Online Game Has Killed 130 Teens in Russia

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What is the Blue Whale online suicide game?

The Blue Whale suicide game is believed to be a social media group which is encouraging people to kill themselves.

There are hundreds of thousands of posts relating to the sick trend on Instagram.

It's thought a group administrator assigns daily tasks to members, which they have to complete over 50 days.

The horrific tasks include self-harming, watching horror movies and waking up at unusual hours, but these gradually get more extreme.

On the 50th day, the controlling manipulators behind the game reportedly instruct the youngsters to commit suicide.

The NSPCC say children should remember not to follow the crowd and not feel pressured into doing anything that makes them feel unsafe.

A spokesperson said: “Children can find it difficult to stand up to peer pressure but they must know it’s perfectly okay to refuse to take part in crazes that make them feel unsafe or scared.

“Parents should talk with their children and emphasise that they can make their own choices and discuss ways of how to say no.

“Reassuring a child that they can still be accepted even if they don’t go along with the crowd will help stop them doing something that could hurt them or make them uncomfortable.”

How many teenage deaths have been linked to Blue Whale in Russia?

Police are said to be probing a number of suicides across Russia which they fear are linked to the online craze.

But as of yet the Blue Whale game has not been proven to be directly responsible for any deaths.

Investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported: "We have counted 130 suicides of children that took place between November 2015 to April 2016.

"Almost all these children were members of the same internet groups and lived in good, happy families." Two schoolgirls Yulia Konstantinova, 15, and Veronika Volkova, 16, fell to their deaths from the roof of a 14-storey apartment block.

Another unnamed 15-year-old girl was also critically injured after falling on to snowy ground from a fifth floor flat in the city of Krasnoyarsk, also Siberia. Two days earlier, a 14-year-old girl from Chita was reported to have thrown herself under a commuter train.

A 13-year-old boy was also saved from killing himself after he was spotted perching on the edge of a roof in Lviv, Ukraine. Yulia left a note saying “End” on her social media page after she posted a picture of a big blue whale.

A family raced to stop a 15-year-old girl from killing herself, with the young girl reportedly now recovering in a hospital in Barcelona.

The Russian parliament proposed a bill bringing about criminal responsibility for the creation of pro-suicide groups on social media. This will need to be signed by President Vladimir Putin and would see those who incited others to commit suicide jailed for up to four years.

Yulia Konstantinova, 15, joined her friend Veronika in jumping from the roof of a 14-storey block of flats

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What are police doing to investigate Blue Whale related deaths?

Cops are said to have launched a probe into the sick craze sweeping Russia - the suicide capital of the world.

It was reported that two teenage boys were detained by police at the scene after allegedly filming the tragic double suicide of Yulia and Veronika.

The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a probe on “incitement to suicide” regarding the pair’s death.

In Krasnoyarsk, law enforcement recently opened three criminal cases of incitement to suicide involving schoolgirls via the groups on social media. In all three cases, the teenagers were rescued.

One local school director told police he had received an anonymous call saying a student had joined a “group of death” and planned soon to kill herself.

Cops believe Veronika Volkova, 16, fell to her death on Sunday after being manipulated by sinister social media group.

The police identified the girl who explained that she had joined a “game” and had been given “tasks” by the group administrator.

She did not obey the commands, which involved self-harm, but there are fears that others did. In the Chita case, transport police confirmed the game is a possible “cause of death”.

Last year, an alleged ringleader named as 21-year-old Philipp Budeikin was detained, and he has been charged with organising eight groups between 2013 and 2016 which “promote suicide”.

Some 15 teenagers committed suicide, and another five were rescued at the last moment, according to the case against him.

Source: thesun.co.uk

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