The “Blue Whale Challenge”?: The first report on a consultation from a health care setting for carrying out “tasks” accessed through a mobile phone application

Self‐harm Risk Among Adolescents and the Phenomenon of the “Blue Whale Challenge”: Case Series and Review of the Literature

“…However, it is interesting to note that the boy of this case had not the typical risk factors for self‐harm behavior mentioned in the literature: He was male; he did not commit self‐harm activities in the past; he was not reported by the father or the school for any “unusual” behavior; in addition, no psychiatric diagnosis was made after a specialized assessment. The boy referred that curiosity was the reason for carrying out the tasks . On the other hand, the five cases described in the present study (Table ) confirm both the “contagious” quality of the Internet and the importance of epidemiological, psychological, psychiatric, social, and cultural risk factors for self‐harm behavior.…”

“…In the light of the two elements mentioned above, the only case of “Blue Whale” described in the literature by Balhara and colleagues confirms the “contagious” quality of the Internet. Indeed, the boy was exposed to self‐harm content by “getting a link in his social media application account.…”

“…As per media reports, the marine mammal “stranding” was used by a Russian psychology student as a metaphor with which to create a peculiar “game,” known as the “Blue Whale Challenge.” The most part of the available information about this phenomenon has been reported by the media: The “Blue Whale Challenge” was born in Russia in 2013 on the “VKontakte” social network; the Russian creator of the “game” thought that people with “no value” should commit suicide in the same way as whales kill themselves by stranding; the challenge lasts for 50 days, and it consists of a series of tasks that a “curator” imposes on the “player” who must complete the list, usually performing one task per day; the “game” involves a series of life‐threatening actions (such as self‐cutting, protracted sleep deprivation, alienation by requiring the “player” to see horror movies early in the morning, and climbing buildings and cranes), and ends on the 50th day with the suicide of the “player,” who must jump from the roof of the tallest building of the city; the “curator” usually sends to the victims via the Internet a link to a secret chat group which is a form of virus that reads and stores each minute detail of the connected smart phone. Because of the unreliability of the sources, it has not been ascertained the effective number of “players” and the suicides related to the “game.” Despite the increasing attention of the media about this phenomenon, in the scientific literature, there is only one report of a “Blue Whale” case which needed a healthcare consultation . Indeed, Balhara and colleagues described the actions of a boy who started to play the “game” after the download of an application on his mobile phone.…”

“…Because of the unreliability of the sources, it has not been ascertained the effective number of “players” and the suicides related to the “game.” Despite the increasing attention of the media about this phenomenon, in the scientific literature, there is only one report of a “Blue Whale” case which needed a healthcare consultation . Indeed, Balhara and colleagues described the actions of a boy who started to play the “game” after the download of an application on his mobile phone. In Italy, the first reports about the “Blue Whale Challenge” appeared in June 2016 in a national newspaper, with little resonance.…”

The Impact of Internet use frequency on Non-suicidal self injurious behavior and Suicidal Ideation among Chinese adolescents: An empirical study based on Gender perspective

“…Social softwares play as an important platform of interpersonal communication, especially with a high prevalence among young Internet users. In recent years, the negative in uence of overusing social softwares on individual psychological and social adaptation has gradually become the focus of researchers, which not only endangers adolescents's mental health, but also increases the possibility of suicides [90]. One example is the emergence of negative social software that threatens adolescents's health in the guise of online social networking lately, such as the "Blue whale challenge" taught adolescents with "no value"should commit suicide in the same way as whales kill themselves by stranding [91].…”