eMessage:

A game that encourages suicide among vulnerable young people through escalating acts of daring behavior. It is called the "blue whale challenge."

eMessage made by – Social Media

Fact Check By Ayupp.com – Fake

Viral on Social Media:

This is one of the sickest things of which I've heard. A game that encourages suicide among vulnerable young people through escalating acts of daring behavior. It is called the "blue whale challenge."

I heard about it twice in the last week. Once from a co-worker, and again on a radio talk show. So I found a news story to share about it.

If your children have access to the internet, please warn them about this deadly game.

Have you heard of the Blue Whale Challenge? This San Antonio dad wants every parent to know about in hopes of preventing any more deaths.

So so sad! Please be aware of games children and young adults actually make that all adults, friends and family down load and play in their spare time it can be deadly!

Ayupp fact check – Though many of the site which play with such news claim of such death caused due to the Blue Whale Challenge. There is nothing substantial to prove this challenge is actually taking lives.

Initially this was started with the claim of website which claimed of hundred of death in Russia due to this game of suicide game. Often this type of games you must have seen in some horror movies. Here it is not true of such death.

This news has been spreading across the world one after another. And recently it was reported in United States. This is wide known as fake news but still people across the world are not hesitating in sharing and promoting such news.

Origin Russia: It is sensationalist fake news started by Russian media last year in May 2016 and has been recently resuscitated not without some political aims. on ‘investigative journalistic stories’ a special working group under Putin made a elaborated plan to be implemented by the Russian government for prevention of teen suicides incitement. Doesn’t that sound familiar –, Turkey cutting off social networks to fight child pornography? Several Russian politicians already mentioned Western intelligence services and Ukrainian nationalists as creators of the horrible game with the aim to exterminate young Russian generation!

Snopes, the U.S.-based site, cites an investigation by Radio Free Europe that found that no suicides had been definitively linked to these online communities. Snopes tells of one such community, Sea of Whales, the creator of which said they created the game and the surrounding lore to drive traffic to the page.

This game has also been in challenge in other regions with captions blue whale challenge UK, blue whale challenge Kenya, blue whale challenge france.

Is Blue Whale a Hoax?

Following a recent meeting of the Insafe Helpline network, our colleagues in Europe acknowledged “that although Blue Whale may have initially been a hoax or fake news, it is now becoming problematic. There are concerns that some young people (as well as adults) are exploiting the fear around this to encourage others to self-harm and carry out various dares and post the results online stating that it was part of the Blue Whale challenge.“ Media interest and warnings from police about the game have sparked criticism, claiming these messages have helped promote a fake news story.

The Blue Whale Game raises some important questions in terms of media influence and the power of the internet. News of the Blue Whale challenges also comes in the same week where many questions are raised about a trending Netflix TV Show based around a teen suicide. The TV show aimed at teens sparked a huge online debate on whether the show glamorizes suicide. The topic also highlights the need for digital media literacy and the challenges fake news now pose for young people.

Don’t be panicked with such a news of Blue whale challenge, it is not coming to your town or city as it never existed even.

With inputs from https://www.webwise.ie/parents/blue-whale-game-hoax/

About The Author

Chetan Sharma is an Indian fact-checker and news writer, writing news for Ayupp since 2014.

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