UP police bans Blue Whale game

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh police issued directives to all district police chiefs to ban the Blue Whale challenge, the internet-based game that has spurred children to commit suicide.

In a letter issued on Tuesday, DGP Sulkhan Singh asked police chiefs to contact school authorities and ensure that children were prevented from playing the game.

District SPs have been asked to take screenshots of the link and forward it to the service providers. As Google, WhatsApp and Facebook are used actively to share files, officials dealing with cyber crime have been asked to keep scanning the virtual world through social media laboratory and specific keywords.

Those hosting the game would be booked. But since servers are usually located in other countries, the key culprit is rarely placed under arrest.

DGP Sulkhan Singh said that legal action against administrators of the lethal game, which is said to have originated from Russia, before spreading to other countries, was urgently needed.

“The administrators of the ‘Blue Whale Challenge’ use social media to misguide the children. This is indeed very worrying. The district police should make the people aware about this. Efforts should also be made to contact school principals to ban students from playing the game. Parents have been advised to consult a counselor if they find their children attracted towards the game,” he said.

The Union information technology ministry, taking serious cognizance of the suicides, has directed social media platforms such as Facebook, Google and Instagram to remove links of the controversial game from their sites, the statement from the DGP office said.

At least six children in Lucknow alone, have been found to be playing the Blue Whale challenge and their behavioral changes have alerted their parents. All six children are under the care of counselors.

The “Blue Whale Challenge” is a controversial internet game in which a series of tasks, mostly brutal, are given to players for a period of 50 days by the administrators with a final challenge requiring them to commit suicide.The player is asked to share photos after finishing the different levels of the game. The game is spread via links on social media platforms.