Rabat – The suicide game, officially known as the Blue Whale Challenge is broadening its influence worldwide. This dangerous game has allegedly caused the death of two Moroccan children, reported Moroccan daily Assabah.
Many teenagers took their own lives due to this dangerous game, which is widespread across the world. The game was reportedly created in 2013 by its alleged mastermind Ilya Sidorov, a 26-year old Russian postman. The application assigns users daily tasks, which they have to do over 50 days.
The challenges given to the players include many self-harming tasks. The game starts by telling its users to wake up at unusual hours to watch horror movies, to listen to sad songs and to insult their parents. The tasks get more extreme gradually throughout the 50 days.
After finishing all the assigned tasks, the game-instructor encourage the youngsters to commit suicide. The application started manipulating the users and threatening them to kill their parents and friends if they did not comply with the orders of the instructors.
The suicide game is taking over the world and already caused many death cases in different areas across the globe. In Morocco, two cases in the few recent months in Casablanca, have been reportedly linked to this dangerous game.
Assabah reported in its December 29th issue that the first alleged victim of the game, was a 8-year old boy from Hay Mohammadi, Casablanca. The second tragedy, allegedly caused by the game in question, occurred on Thursday, December 28 in Casablanca’s Douar Rhamna. The victim was this time a 12-year old girl.
Sidorov, who was arrested in June by Russian authorities, alleged to have developed the game. The game caused 130 death cases in Russia, while in Algeria, 5 children aged between 11 and 16 have took their own lives recently, reported Assabah.
Investigations by Algerian authorities revealed that at least one of the five victims had committed suicide because she had completed the fiftieth challenge of the game: “jump off the roof or hang yourself.”
Philipp Budeikin, another 22-year old inciter was jailed in Russia for his alleged involvement in 16 suicides in different areas in Russia. During his hearing, the inciter told the judge that the victims of the game were “biological waste” and that he was “cleansing the society.”
Unsupervised Internet Access
In Morocco, 88 percent of Moroccan children use internet on a regular basis, according to a survey conducted by the opinion research firm “Averty” in partnership with “Kaspersky Lab.” The study, which was conducted in 2016 reveals that children’s use of Internet exceeds the average internet users in Morocco set at 60 percent.
Unsupervised Internet access is dangerous due to many factors. “Internet is not always fruitful,”Abdelali Erramy, social activist and president of the Childhood Forum and the National Association for Social, Economic and Cultural Development told Morocco World News.
“Unfortunately this dangerous game is threatening many countries. It asks its users to do dangerous tasks and make them commit suicide.” The social activist also said that organizations and activists need to raise awareness in order to avoid suicide cases and also to block this “deadly game” definitely.
“Many children use internet nowadays without being supervised by their parents, which is a very serious issue that parents need to be aware of,” Errami told MWN.
He added that parents should supervise their children’s devices not only to prevent them from using such games, but also to supervise the usage of internet.
“There are several applications and pornographic sites that negatively affect our children. Parents must protect their children from these things that threaten their childhood.”
