TV celebs opine on the menacing Blue Whale Game

The Blue whale challenge is believed to be a suicide game wherein a group of administrators or a certain curator gives a participant a task to complete daily for a period of 50 days - the final of which is the participant committing suicide. Participants are expected to share photos of tasks that are completed by them. There is still uncertainty about how a participant plays the game. While some say they have to install some app on their smartphone, others say its via social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook where the administrators get in touch with the participant after those interested throw out postings on the social media asking for a "curator". A number of different hastags #bluewhalechallenge, #curatorfindme, #I_am_whale act as signals for anonymous curators. Whatever be the game, the aftermaths are shocking with the suicide cases amongst teens increasing manifold. TellyChakkar.com spoke at length to actors from the Bengali and Hindi television to get their point of view on the entire murky situation and also to get to know what they thought about the malevolent game. Read on to know what they said - 

Vivian Dsena - The most important thing I want to tell such disturbed young people who take the extreme step of committing suicide is that you do not have the right to end the life that you were given by someone else. While some resort to such adversities for the thrill, failed relationships have also been one of the primary reasons. If ending one’s life was a solution for life’s problems, the whole world would be standing on the highway! If you can’t fight, you’re challenging your family’s upbringing, because of all the things, your parents would never have taught you that this is how you deal with problems. Not losing hope is what matters the most. Things might seem bleak now, but there’s always a ray of light which you can see only after the darkness.

Ishaan Mazumder - Blue whale challenge is a major mental viral program.  It has been designed in such a way that it connects your loneliness and the interface is your mobile. We all are gadget prone these days. People in the house or in the society look and dedicate time to mobile rather than meeting in person. It’s affecting those who are more addicted to loneliness and weak in mind and more or less are bipolar. They are either the victims of society or self complications.  Talking about protective measures, well, parents should be careful enough and should constantly council the minors boosting their confidence. 

Anuj Sachdev- It’s not just the Blue whale challenge. There are so many such games, with different names. If you Google it, you’ll find such games. It only attacks school kids who are not that intellectually matured. It is an attack on people who are not developed and aware. At such times, it is the parents who have to take the call. They need to address this issue and talk to their kids if they are around any such games. The game also takes details from you and using that information blackmails one to end their life. People need to be aware of it and talk about it. There are games which have age group mentioned like PS3. We need to follow those age groups because these games only define the way our brains develop. Imagine what sort of exposure the brains of kids will get if they sit in front of the computer and play violent games. Age limits do matter. I think 16-18 years should not be given phones.

Saurav Das- I don’t know much about the Blue Whale Challenge. But after reading things like children ending their lives and then the other day I saw a video where the kid was saying that he likes to complete the challenges so I would say that the creators of these games are playing with the minds of the victims. I wonder what sort of happiness they get by killing the children. If you ask me what leads these children to play such violent games, I won’t be able to answer. But talking about protective measures, I would say children should not be given phones. I understand that in this fast life phone plays a significant role. So even if you give phone to your child, make sure he does not play such games. And to understand, which games are dangerous, parents need to be educative on this matter. I would also say that parents must try to become friends of their children and inspire them to indulge in some outdoor games.

Shampa Banerjee- Well, in my opinion parents should become more concerned and caring towards their children. In today’s busy world where both parents are working in most of the families, parents hardly get time to spend with their children; as a result children end up growing up into lonely teenagers. Loneliness leads to depression and at the same time internet and the virtual world become the only acquaintance. A normal happy child would never want to play such dangerous and abnormal games. So, we should give children a happy world so that they don’t need to depend on the virtual world.

Upasna Singh- I have read a lot about it. This is happening everywhere, we can’t even stop it. Parents need to give attention. Kids are up all night. We didn’t have these things at our time. Games were different we used to go out and have fun and not cling to phones. More than the benefits, smartphones are problematic. These days, kids can view anything on internet, there is no censor. Indian culture is the best for kids, so they should be given Indian values. The importance of life should be taught to kids, we are lucky to have born as humans; even in school it should be taught. Everything is dangerous now, our time was the best.