Has Blue Whale Resulted In The Death Of 130 Russian Teens?
At the end of 2015, a 17-year-old Russian girl named, Rina Palenkova posted this selfie online moments before jumping in front of an oncoming train. The train driver saw Rina and desperately tried to stop the train but he couldn't and Rina was killed by the impact.
As well as posting the haunting photos, the teen also left a message on her social media accounts, simply saying "goodbye."
Since her suicide several online communities and death groups, including 'Sea of Whales' have been sharing Rina's photos and claiming that she was part of their internet suicide groups, but her death has not been officially linked to any specific online group.
However, a more sinister double-suicide early in 2017 has been linked directly to Blue Whale. Yulia Konstantinova, 15 and Nika Volkova, 16 took their lives together by jumping from a 14-storey building. Shortly before her death Yulia posted a photo of a blue whale on Instagram and changed her VK status to "end." Nika also left a similar message on her VK profile, "sense is lost... End."
Blue Whale and similar games have been linked to at least 80 of 130 recent teen suicides by Russian media but no concrete links between any of these deaths have been confirmed by police.
"We counted 130 suicides in children that occurred in Russia from November 2015 to April 2016. Almost all of them were members of the same group on the Internet."
-Novaya Gazeta
While 130 teens might have been members of the same group, this doesn't mean for certain that the group or its admins encouraged any of them to take their lives, especially when you take into consideration that Russia has a high baseline suicide rate among young people. 461 minors took their own lives in 2013, for example.
Although Blue Whale has not been found to have directly caused a rise in teens taking their own lives, so called "death groups," that promote suicide are real and are a big problem, especially in Russia.
These groups encourage children to commit suicide by convincing them that they are "fat" or "losers" in this world, however they tell them that there is is another world and there they will be among the chosen ones.
In November 2016, a 21-year-old administrator of a VK group was arrested and charged with persuading teens to commit suicide. Filipp Budeikin, who went by the name "Filipp the Fox" online, is believed to be at least partially responsible for the deaths of around 15 minors.
Around the world, police have started to warn parents about the dangers of these online "death groups" and suicide games. Police forces in Belgium and France have started spreading the word and in the UK the Devon and Cornwall Police recently tweeted, "who ever created this horrible game is sick! Parents: Please be aware of this 'game' talk to your children about it if concerned."
Complete List Of Blue Whale Challenges
A Reddit user posted a completed list of tasks which were supposedly posted in a comment on a story about the game on a Russian news website. The list of 50 challenges has been translated from Russian.
1. Carve with a razor "f57" on your hand, send a photo to the curator.
2. Wake up at 4.20 a.m. and watch psychedelic and scary videos that curator sends you.
3. Cut your arm with a razor along your veins, but not too deep, only 3 cuts, send a photo to the curator.
4. Draw a whale on a sheet of paper, send a photo to curator.
5. If you are ready to "become a whale", carve "YES" on your leg. If not, cut yourself many times (punish yourself).
6. Task with a cipher.
7. Carve "f40" on your hand, send a photo to curator.
8. Type "#i_am_whale" in your VKontakte status.
9. You have to overcome your fear.
10. Wake up at 4:20 a.m. and go to a roof (the higher the better)
11. Carve a whale on your hand with a razor, send a photo to curator.
12. Watch psychedelic and horror videos all day.
13. Listen to music that "they" (curators) send you.
14. Cut your lip.
15. Poke your hand with a needle many times
16. Do something painful to yourself, make yourself sick.
17. Go to the highest roof you can find, stand on the edge for some time.
18. Go to a bridge, stand on the edge.
19. Climb up a crane or at least try to do it
20. The curator checks if you are trustworthy.
21. Have a talk "with a whale" (with another player like you or with a curator) in Skype.
22. Go to a roof and sit on the edge with your legs dangling.
23. Another task with a cipher.
24. Secret task.
25. Have a meeting with a "whale."
26. The curator tells you the date of your death and you have to accept it.
27. Wake up at 4:20 a.m. and go to rails (visit any railroad that you can find).
28. Don't talk to anyone all day.
29. Make a vow that "you're a whale."
30-49. Everyday you wake up at 4:20am, watch horror videos, listen to music that "they" send you, make 1 cut on your body per day, talk "to a whale."
50. Jump off a high building. Take your life.
Want To Play?
If you're stupid enough to want to play this game then you're going to have to search hard. Assuming the game even really exists, it's not out in the open. You can't find the Blue Whale Challenge on Google or even on a Facebook group. According to news reports it exists in closed groups and in private message conversations.
It's said that he game administrators often choose their victims rather than the players themselves seeking out the game.
Perhaps you're just looking to play so that you can troll the admins, to expose them or to seek revenge but remember, anyone who encourages a vulnerable teen to take their own life is sick and you don't know what people like that are capable of.
Clicking a link someone like this sends you or downloading a file could expose a security vulnerability on your phone or computer that allows the admin to steal your personal data which they could then use to blackmail, manipulate or trick you into playing.
~~END OF RESEARCH~~
Please be careful, guys... this is really serious.... just please don't take the challenge....
Be safe.♡
Found some more information about the blue whale challenge...
Start from the beginning
