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The Blue Whale Challenge --Fact or Fiction???
We all have heard about the famous Blue whale challenge....... but those who don't know what it was.... The "Blue Whale challenge" was an online "suicide game" aimed at teenagers which set 50 tasks over 50 days. The challenge was alleged to be linked to numerous deaths around the world.
The challenge was alleged to have started in Russia, but reports of it soon spread to other countries like Ukraine , India and the United States.
Hundreds of deaths were reported to be linked to the so-called "suicide game". It was very dangerous because it was destroying the country's future that is teenagers and children...... their already disturned mind was further manipulated by the challenge and hence the destruction took place.....
But closer investigation has revealed something curious. The game, at least as it was initially reported, doesn't seem to have existed at all.
Very few people know about the original story about the game.... many of us know the things we heard from somewhere but do we really know what was the root cause or why was this game started.........so let's just start with the original story....
THE ORIGINAL STORY...
The story of the Blue Whale challenge began with a gir, Rina Palenkova.
On 22 November 2015, Rina, a teenager living in Russia, posted a selfie. In the photo she is standing outside. A black scarf is wrapped around her mouth and nose. She is sticking her middle finger up at the camera. It looks like it's covered in dried blood.The photo's caption read: "Nya bye". The next day, she took her own life.
Rina's death was discussed in a certain type of chat room hosted by Russia's largest social network VKontakte. And this is where everything started.......
Scary stories were exchanged. The spookiness of these stories came from how real they seemed, something often achieved through fake pictures or doctored footage.
It was in these groups, where the line between fact and fiction was often blurred, that users posted feverishly about Rina. In some instances, they praised her.......yes, praised her for ending her life, which is really......really gross.
I mean why would you encourage such things?? Further more Videos claiming to be her final moments were posted online. And we all know the reason....... Getting attention..... right?
But amid the rumours, there was a problem.
"Nobody actually knew the true story behind her suicide," says Daria Radchenko, a senior researcher at the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration who has looked into the so-called Blue Whale challenge.
And shortly thereafter, Rina's story merged with other stories of teenage suicide.
On Christmas Day 2015, 12-year-old Angelina Davydova killed herself in the Russian city of Ryazan. A little over a fortnight later, so did 'Diana Kuznetsova', a teenager from the same city.
When the parents examined the online accounts left behind by their daughters, they found something curious - the two girls were part of similar online groups.
In these groups were drawings of Rina Palenkova, posts about suicide and numerous mentions of blue whales.
But we all have questions.... why blue whale and not any other animal or creature??
There has been much speculation about how whales became linked to suicide in these groups. Some journalists claim it is because whales have been known to beach themselves. Others say that it is a reference to lyrics from a Russian rock band named Lumen.
Whales are solitary-seeming, sad-looking animals. One of the most widely shared images was of a whale flying over a city at night which you can see is the cover of this article. It captured the spirit of these groups - melancholy and quietly surreal.
But it wasn't until May 2016 that speculation about blue whales and suicide became part of the national conversation in Russia.
An article by journalist Galina Mursalieva, an investigative newspaper, sent the story into overdrive.
Mursalieva suggested that inside certain online groups, some of them with names like "Ocean Whales" and "f57", existed a game. In this game, so-called "curators" would set players 50 tasks over 50 days. On the last day the user was instructed to take their own life. The Novaya Gazeta report estimated that 130 children might have killed themselves between November 2015 and April 2016 because of their participation in these groups which us Hugh......130 teenagers literally ended their life due to this game........ The tasks would be to go outside on odd hours or watch scary stuff at mid night also physically harm themselves by drawing with knife or blade on their hands....... Imagine being in this situation where you can't just continue and so you end your life..... their were rules which the players had to follow and if they don't they were told that their families would be killed...... I can't even imagine the impact this was making on their mental health...... It did not take long for the story to cause considerable alarm.
Soon the panic spread outside Russia. In Georgia, US, a 16-year-old girl killed herself. It was only later when her family had learned about the Blue Whale challenge that they realised the significance of the paintings, she had finished at school shortly before she died. They appeared to be of blue whale.
Then came other suicides, in the United States, a 19-year-old in Hyderabad in India, and two Russian girls and many more cases were reported. A few days before a girl Konstantinova died she had posted an image of a blue whale on her Instagram account. Also many others posted similar photos on their social media accounts.
In November 2016, 21-year-old 'Philipp Budeikin' was arrested, charged with inciting teenagers to suicide. Budeikin appeared to admit the blame. He told Russian media outlet "There are people, and then there is biodegradable waste. I was cleansing our society of such people. Sometimes I start to think that it's wrong, but in the end I had the feeling I was doing the right thing."
I never knew there was a thanos in real life..... just kidding....but really this kind of thinking is bizard.......
A former psychology student, the impression given by the media was that he had used highly developed tactics to manipulate teenagers into killing themselves.
He said he had created the game in 2013 under the name "f57", combining the sound of the start of his name, Philipp, and the last two digits of his phone number. On 10 May 2017 he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in prison but was later proven innocent, whose reason will be revealed further into the story.....
It seemed like an open-and-shut case. Further investigation, however, has revealed that nothing about the Blue Whale challenge was quite as straightforward as it seemed.
In a story shrouded in rumour and hearsay, this 130 figure is one of the very few widely reported "facts". But even though it is still being used by many news outlets, the figure is tenuous.
"There have actually been way more than 130 cases," claims Mursalieva. "But tell me - who could confirm that this happened? How can it be confirmed?"
And to me this seems to be a correct argument. How can the cause of a suicide ever be "proved"? It might be more accurate to say that teenagers suffering from depression, some of them suicidal, could be drawn to groups that deal with that topic. These same children may use similar images, like blue whales, to articulate their feelings online.
With its surreal memes and creepy stories that blur fact and fiction, the subculture of teenage messaging boards is easy for adults to misinterpret. It is possible that journalists and concerned parents accessed these groups and brought together disparate elements into a story that wasn't really there.
That reading tallies with the findings of Alexandra Arkhipova. When she and her colleagues entered the online groups alleged to be connected with the Blue Whale challenge, they found something strange.
"All of these 'curators'," says Arkhipova, "turned out to be children aged 12 to 14."
Yes,12--14 years!!!!!!!!
Far from being manipulative adults, all the curators seemed to be just kids who had read or heard about the game. In fact, Arkhipova's research suggests that the "challenge" might not have really existed in any substantial way before the Novaya Gazeta article was published.
Arkhipova says that the "curators" she came across online were copycats, acting out step by step the parts of a game that was being widely reported in the press.
"In all these groups people, mainly young people, were waiting for this game," says Arkhipova.
But where does that leave the story of Philipp Budeikin, the man who confessed to creating the game? Oddly, it might have something to do with his music career.
Friends of Budeikin, speaking to the investigative journalist Evgeny Berg, disputed the claim that he is an evil mastermind.
In fact, they say that he filled online groups with "shock" content related to Rina Palenkova, the first girl to commit suicide, in order to get as many followers as possible - and then advertise his music. Yes, this might sound bizard but now a days, this could be true.......Being famous is what is been important to some, even more than being innocent. And followers are very important...... more than their reputation, career, and their life......
it's really true that now a days people want to get famous as fast as possible... even though they don't really have any talents.
In June 2018, Russian financial analyst Nikita Nearonov was arrested for allegedly masterminding the Blue Whale game. Nearonov is suspected of grooming 10 "underage" girls in order to bring them to suicide, 2 of which, aged 14 and 17, are known to have survived. As a financial analyst, Nearonov has been described as a "very smart" computer expert who held a large amount of contempt for teenagers, believing that they were "wicked" and "deserved to die". Police reports claim that Nearonov's involvement in the Blue Whale game was his "hobby".The truth at the heart of the Blue Whale challenge is surely more sad than the breathless articles might have us believe. Russia's suicide rates are high especially among the young. It has one of the highest rates of adolescent suicide in the world.And this might be the reason why this game became so popular.
Yes, some teenagers appear to have been drawn into online forums where suicide was being discussed. And in those forums, blue whale memes were being shared.
What is worrying is that despite the common knowledge that the deadly game started and spread on VKontakte, which is a hugely popular site in Russia, no checks were brought in place to contain the network. One can easily create a VKontakte account . And once you log in, and search for #bluewhale, you come across psychotic, extremely depressing messages of young people desperately wanting to play the game and end their lives. Their profiles are as depressing as it can get. There are pictures of self-injury, ghosts and horrifying sketches of people bleeding and trying to kill themselves.
There were some messages... which included...
'I will do anything to die'
'I desperately want to play the blue whale challange. I have been feeling suicidal and depressed from a very long time, just want to end my life in a fun way '
Yes, these were the words which came from teenagers, which is really.....really sad......imagine what pressure they would be having when they were writing this........ apparently for them suicide was the only option left, what could be the reason??
well, we all kinda know what could be or what is still the reason for suicides but we definitely know the result of all this........ DESTRUCTION and nothing else.....
The sentence that I want to end my life in a fun way, explains their mindset.......the misery which the teenagers went through after entering the game is what no one can imagine..... They lost their self worth and when they were said if they don't follow the rules they would be the reason for their parent's death they would have surrendered their last hope of survival too......Now this is want no-one in the world should go through...... EVER!!!!. It is really sad that something like this ever existed.
At the end I just want to tell you that...... if you are a parent please talk to your child if you don't, you will never know what he or she is going through and when they might end up taking a bad decision...... and they won't be here to regret it rather you will......
Do tell me that you think about this.....
The challenge was alleged to have started in Russia, but reports of it soon spread to other countries like Ukraine , India and the United States.
Hundreds of deaths were reported to be linked to the so-called "suicide game". It was very dangerous because it was destroying the country's future that is teenagers and children...... their already disturned mind was further manipulated by the challenge and hence the destruction took place.....
But closer investigation has revealed something curious. The game, at least as it was initially reported, doesn't seem to have existed at all.
Very few people know about the original story about the game.... many of us know the things we heard from somewhere but do we really know what was the root cause or why was this game started.........so let's just start with the original story....
THE ORIGINAL STORY...
The story of the Blue Whale challenge began with a gir, Rina Palenkova.
On 22 November 2015, Rina, a teenager living in Russia, posted a selfie. In the photo she is standing outside. A black scarf is wrapped around her mouth and nose. She is sticking her middle finger up at the camera. It looks like it's covered in dried blood.The photo's caption read: "Nya bye". The next day, she took her own life.
Rina's death was discussed in a certain type of chat room hosted by Russia's largest social network VKontakte. And this is where everything started.......
Scary stories were exchanged. The spookiness of these stories came from how real they seemed, something often achieved through fake pictures or doctored footage.
It was in these groups, where the line between fact and fiction was often blurred, that users posted feverishly about Rina. In some instances, they praised her.......yes, praised her for ending her life, which is really......really gross.
I mean why would you encourage such things?? Further more Videos claiming to be her final moments were posted online. And we all know the reason....... Getting attention..... right?
But amid the rumours, there was a problem.
"Nobody actually knew the true story behind her suicide," says Daria Radchenko, a senior researcher at the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration who has looked into the so-called Blue Whale challenge.
And shortly thereafter, Rina's story merged with other stories of teenage suicide.
On Christmas Day 2015, 12-year-old Angelina Davydova killed herself in the Russian city of Ryazan. A little over a fortnight later, so did 'Diana Kuznetsova', a teenager from the same city.
When the parents examined the online accounts left behind by their daughters, they found something curious - the two girls were part of similar online groups.
In these groups were drawings of Rina Palenkova, posts about suicide and numerous mentions of blue whales.
But we all have questions.... why blue whale and not any other animal or creature??
There has been much speculation about how whales became linked to suicide in these groups. Some journalists claim it is because whales have been known to beach themselves. Others say that it is a reference to lyrics from a Russian rock band named Lumen.
Whales are solitary-seeming, sad-looking animals. One of the most widely shared images was of a whale flying over a city at night which you can see is the cover of this article. It captured the spirit of these groups - melancholy and quietly surreal.
But it wasn't until May 2016 that speculation about blue whales and suicide became part of the national conversation in Russia.
An article by journalist Galina Mursalieva, an investigative newspaper, sent the story into overdrive.
Mursalieva suggested that inside certain online groups, some of them with names like "Ocean Whales" and "f57", existed a game. In this game, so-called "curators" would set players 50 tasks over 50 days. On the last day the user was instructed to take their own life. The Novaya Gazeta report estimated that 130 children might have killed themselves between November 2015 and April 2016 because of their participation in these groups which us Hugh......130 teenagers literally ended their life due to this game........ The tasks would be to go outside on odd hours or watch scary stuff at mid night also physically harm themselves by drawing with knife or blade on their hands....... Imagine being in this situation where you can't just continue and so you end your life..... their were rules which the players had to follow and if they don't they were told that their families would be killed...... I can't even imagine the impact this was making on their mental health...... It did not take long for the story to cause considerable alarm.
Soon the panic spread outside Russia. In Georgia, US, a 16-year-old girl killed herself. It was only later when her family had learned about the Blue Whale challenge that they realised the significance of the paintings, she had finished at school shortly before she died. They appeared to be of blue whale.
Then came other suicides, in the United States, a 19-year-old in Hyderabad in India, and two Russian girls and many more cases were reported. A few days before a girl Konstantinova died she had posted an image of a blue whale on her Instagram account. Also many others posted similar photos on their social media accounts.
In November 2016, 21-year-old 'Philipp Budeikin' was arrested, charged with inciting teenagers to suicide. Budeikin appeared to admit the blame. He told Russian media outlet "There are people, and then there is biodegradable waste. I was cleansing our society of such people. Sometimes I start to think that it's wrong, but in the end I had the feeling I was doing the right thing."
I never knew there was a thanos in real life..... just kidding....but really this kind of thinking is bizard.......
A former psychology student, the impression given by the media was that he had used highly developed tactics to manipulate teenagers into killing themselves.
He said he had created the game in 2013 under the name "f57", combining the sound of the start of his name, Philipp, and the last two digits of his phone number. On 10 May 2017 he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in prison but was later proven innocent, whose reason will be revealed further into the story.....
It seemed like an open-and-shut case. Further investigation, however, has revealed that nothing about the Blue Whale challenge was quite as straightforward as it seemed.
In a story shrouded in rumour and hearsay, this 130 figure is one of the very few widely reported "facts". But even though it is still being used by many news outlets, the figure is tenuous.
"There have actually been way more than 130 cases," claims Mursalieva. "But tell me - who could confirm that this happened? How can it be confirmed?"
And to me this seems to be a correct argument. How can the cause of a suicide ever be "proved"? It might be more accurate to say that teenagers suffering from depression, some of them suicidal, could be drawn to groups that deal with that topic. These same children may use similar images, like blue whales, to articulate their feelings online.
With its surreal memes and creepy stories that blur fact and fiction, the subculture of teenage messaging boards is easy for adults to misinterpret. It is possible that journalists and concerned parents accessed these groups and brought together disparate elements into a story that wasn't really there.
That reading tallies with the findings of Alexandra Arkhipova. When she and her colleagues entered the online groups alleged to be connected with the Blue Whale challenge, they found something strange.
"All of these 'curators'," says Arkhipova, "turned out to be children aged 12 to 14."
Yes,12--14 years!!!!!!!!
Far from being manipulative adults, all the curators seemed to be just kids who had read or heard about the game. In fact, Arkhipova's research suggests that the "challenge" might not have really existed in any substantial way before the Novaya Gazeta article was published.
Arkhipova says that the "curators" she came across online were copycats, acting out step by step the parts of a game that was being widely reported in the press.
"In all these groups people, mainly young people, were waiting for this game," says Arkhipova.
But where does that leave the story of Philipp Budeikin, the man who confessed to creating the game? Oddly, it might have something to do with his music career.
Friends of Budeikin, speaking to the investigative journalist Evgeny Berg, disputed the claim that he is an evil mastermind.
In fact, they say that he filled online groups with "shock" content related to Rina Palenkova, the first girl to commit suicide, in order to get as many followers as possible - and then advertise his music. Yes, this might sound bizard but now a days, this could be true.......Being famous is what is been important to some, even more than being innocent. And followers are very important...... more than their reputation, career, and their life......
it's really true that now a days people want to get famous as fast as possible... even though they don't really have any talents.
In June 2018, Russian financial analyst Nikita Nearonov was arrested for allegedly masterminding the Blue Whale game. Nearonov is suspected of grooming 10 "underage" girls in order to bring them to suicide, 2 of which, aged 14 and 17, are known to have survived. As a financial analyst, Nearonov has been described as a "very smart" computer expert who held a large amount of contempt for teenagers, believing that they were "wicked" and "deserved to die". Police reports claim that Nearonov's involvement in the Blue Whale game was his "hobby".The truth at the heart of the Blue Whale challenge is surely more sad than the breathless articles might have us believe. Russia's suicide rates are high especially among the young. It has one of the highest rates of adolescent suicide in the world.And this might be the reason why this game became so popular.
Yes, some teenagers appear to have been drawn into online forums where suicide was being discussed. And in those forums, blue whale memes were being shared.
What is worrying is that despite the common knowledge that the deadly game started and spread on VKontakte, which is a hugely popular site in Russia, no checks were brought in place to contain the network. One can easily create a VKontakte account . And once you log in, and search for #bluewhale, you come across psychotic, extremely depressing messages of young people desperately wanting to play the game and end their lives. Their profiles are as depressing as it can get. There are pictures of self-injury, ghosts and horrifying sketches of people bleeding and trying to kill themselves.
There were some messages... which included...
'I will do anything to die'
'I desperately want to play the blue whale challange. I have been feeling suicidal and depressed from a very long time, just want to end my life in a fun way '
Yes, these were the words which came from teenagers, which is really.....really sad......imagine what pressure they would be having when they were writing this........ apparently for them suicide was the only option left, what could be the reason??
well, we all kinda know what could be or what is still the reason for suicides but we definitely know the result of all this........ DESTRUCTION and nothing else.....
The sentence that I want to end my life in a fun way, explains their mindset.......the misery which the teenagers went through after entering the game is what no one can imagine..... They lost their self worth and when they were said if they don't follow the rules they would be the reason for their parent's death they would have surrendered their last hope of survival too......Now this is want no-one in the world should go through...... EVER!!!!. It is really sad that something like this ever existed.
At the end I just want to tell you that...... if you are a parent please talk to your child if you don't, you will never know what he or she is going through and when they might end up taking a bad decision...... and they won't be here to regret it rather you will......
Do tell me that you think about this.....
