by Dubois Lou-Salomé, Gaté Camille and Riou Anaïs
What is the Blue Whale Challenge?
For some years a new type of game has been circulating on the web. If originally a challenge or a game is meant to be entertaining, here it is not. The so-called blue whale challenge was created in 2013 by a young Russian man. Its main purpose is to influence the player to harm himself. The challenge implies a player but first and foremost a curator who is leading the game. The game’s name refers to the myth that blue whales would beach on the beaches to die on their own. Then, it has been spread through social networks such as Snapchat, Instagram or Twitter into the whole the world very quickly. Nowadays, it is difficult to curb it because it officially affects some twenty countries, like India, Argentina, Italy, France… On social media, people get in touch via a secret link and not via an application. Consequently, despite the condemnation of the creator, the game still circulates because there are always mentors, for instance former players who have not finished the game.
Distribution of Blue Whale Challenge cases across the world
This game takes place over a period of 50 days, during which the player has to complete tasks that his curator imposes on him. These tasks follow a logical order and are the same for all contenders. Each challenge aims to reach the integrity of the player only. Thus, on day number 5, the candidate must carve the word “YES” on his leg if he is ready to become “a whale”. If he does not succeed he is punished and must scarify himself several times. To certify the daily challenge has been fulfilled, the player sends a picture to his mentor. First hardships are intended to initiate the person, followed by habituation tasks such as watching horror videos, waking up at 4.20 am, going to the highest roof of the town… The final challenge the person has to end his life, by jumping off a building for example. Thus, several dozen young people have “won” the game, taking off their own lives at the same time.
This type of game can be similar to cyberbullying, which “is an aggressive, intentional act perpetrated by an individual or group of individuals through electronic forms of communication, repeatedly against a victim who cannot easily defend himself or herself alone.” (Smith and al., 2008, p.376). Moreover, temporal and spatial boundaries are abolished, the person is never at rest. But here there are notable nuances, such as the relationship that unites the player with his curator.
Targeted audience : what are the risky adolescent’s profiles?
The targeted audience by the BWC is depressed-traits’ people who are considered by the creator of the challenge as “weak”. Actually, the audience is mainly composed of teenagers, adolescence being a particularly risky period. Identity reshaping leads to major changes and is marked by an increase of anxiety and depression. Moreover, because the social influence is at its highest level, adolescents are taking risks to experience new adventures by themselves particularly. However, because of the brain maturation process, they do not have the same perception of risks as adults and do not always realize when their lives are at stake.
- We can identify three categories of gamers:
Some users are contacted by a curator. These administrators link with people whose social media activities are quite negatively oriented and show a depressed profile. For example, users who post content and express things as “why I am the most disliked person” can be targeted and contacted. These young people already have a will to die or, at least, an uneasy feeling.
Other users decide to contact a curator directly. To do so, they use social networks, using hashtags when they are posting a photo, or some others contents. For examples, #Iamawhale, #curatorfindme… As well as the first category of participants, these teenagers can be easily identified as vulnerable.
Finally, there are also the curiosity seekers. These young people have heard about the challenge in the medias (TV, radio…) and just want to see what the challenge is. If at the first sight they don’t seem vulnerable, we will see that it can be very dangerous for them either.
- Why are adolescents staying in the game?
In addition to the critical period of adolescence, the blue whale challenge is ”successful” because it is thought very cleverly and thoroughly. Therefore, most of the hardships are built to exhaust the gamers. Day after day, the gamers are becoming more and more suggestible, so the curator can manipulate them more easily. Moreover, one of the instructions is that the game has to remain confidential so teenagers are isolated and become more impressionable.
At last, whatever the reason the players enter in the challenge, it’s a risky involvement because their personal data will be hacked and used as pressure. Thus, if they want to leave the game, teenagers will be bullied by their curator and their families would be threatened. Teenagers, not wanting harming their loved-ones are trapped, leading to no other option than pursue the game. Once again the construct of the game leads to a dead end, as if there was no other way out but going to the end and killing oneself.
Prevention and awareness
In general, teenagers victims of this challenge or of school harassment do not speak directly to adults because they fear reprisals or are often ashamed. Thus, it makes sense to raise awareness among people who are around these teenagers. Within the schools, teachers, nurses, psychologists, and even all staff members must be aware of this challenge. Moreover, classmates must be informed of challenges that circulate on social networks and in the playgrounds. Indeed, it is sometimes easier to talk about these problems with friends than to seek help from a teacher for example. Therefore, it is important for parents to be aware that challenges exist on social networks, but more broadly of the risks incurred by their children. In 2018, Mahadevaih and Nayak’s research revealed that 65% of healthcare professionals such as psychiatrists or clinical psychologists had only “heard of” the BWC but had no additional information about it. The study concludes that, today, professionals are lagging behind in informing themselves about new online phenomena.
Today, simple media such as television and radio, with advertising, can be used in order to sensitize the general public. Thus, currently-non-existent-prevention spots about dangerous games on social networks could be broadcasted. In addition, the school can also be a place of prevention: campaigns could be organized several times a year to expose the different games on the networks and their risks. More specifically, an exhaustive list of alerting signals could be posted in high schools like: changes in behavior / in sleep patterns, social withdrawal, absenteeism or a drop in school results. The government must also act and establish a stricter legal frame on social media platforms. In fact several social networks such as Twitter or Instagram already have implemented preventing messages that pop up when a person uses the hashtags #bluewhalechallenge or #suicide.
Raising awareness and prevention among the general public is important and urgent because challenges of this kind are spreading around the world. With children’s access to phones and computers at an increasingly early age, the risk of falling into these dangerous games is significant. Finally, the length of this challenge is short (50 days) and when the teenager is involved in the game it is can be too late.
Sources:
Khattar, A., Dabas, K., Gupta, K., Chopra, S., & Kumaraguru, P. (2018). White or blue, the whale gets its vengeance: A social media analysis of the blue whale challenge. Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.05588
Mukhra, R., Baryah, N., Krishan, K., & Kanchan, T. (2019). ‘Blue Whale Challenge’: A game or crime?. Science and engineering ethics, 25(1), 285-291. doi : 10.1007/s11948-017-0004-2
Mahadevaiah, M., & Nayak, R. B. (2018). Blue whale challenge: Perceptions of first responders in medical profession. Indian journal of psychological medicine, 40(2), doi : 178-182. 10.4103/IJPSYM.IJPSYM_399_17
Smith, P. K., Mahdavi, J., Carvalho, M., Fisher, S., Russell, S., & Tippett, N. (2008). Cyberbullying: its nature and impact in secondary school pupils. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 49(4), 376–385. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2007.01846.x
Words we have learned:
Contenders = players
Carve : graver en profondeur
Curator = mentor
Identity reshaping : remaniement identitaire
Their lives are at stake : leur vie est en jeu
Hardships : épreuves
Harm : préjudice → self-harm
Social withdrawal : retrait social