HC raises questions on youngsters playing Blue Whale

New Delhi, Aug 17 (IANS) The Delhi High Court on Thursday raised questions over youngsters committing suicide while playing the Blue Whale Challenge online game, asking how people are getting influenced by it.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar was hearing a plea seeking a direction to restrain companies -- including Google, Facebook and Yahoo -- from uploading any material pertaining to the Blue Whale Challenge and listed the matter for hearing on August 22.

The game, reportedly created by a former convict in Russia, psychologically stimulates the players to indulge in daring, self-destructive tasks for 50 days before finally taking the "winning" step of killing themselves. Each task must be filmed and shared as proof.

On July 30, a 14-year-old schoolboy Manpreet Singh Sahani walked off the fifth floor of his residential building in Mumbai, while a former Manipur minister's son died after falling from a terrace in Delhi recently. The Blue Whale game is suspected behind both the deaths.

Also, a teenager in Kerala hanged himself to death allegedly while completing a Blue Whale challenge.

The court has asked the petitioner, advocate Gurmeet Singh, to apprise it of any such incidents in Delhi.

The petitioner has also sought a direction to the Delhi Police to appoint a special five-member team to oversee whether the internet companies comply with the court's direction.