New Delhi: Maneka Gandhi, the Minister for Women and Child Development, has written to her counterpart in the Electronics Ministry to ban the online game Blue Whale challenge game, which allegedly consists of a series of tasks assigned to players by administrators on social media during a 50-day period, with the final challenge requiring the player to commit suicide.
"I would like to request you to please take up the matter with the concerned authorities for removing the Blue Whale Challenge game from social media so that safety and security of children could be ensured," Meneka wrote in a letter to Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Minister of Electronics.
This Blue Whale Challenge game has taken the live of more than 100 youngsters, Maneka wrote, though it's not clear if the deaths are all in India or worldwide. In India it is being spread through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and also through WhatsApp. The game consists of an anonymous administrator who orders children to do certain tasks for a period of 50 days. Each successive task becomes more sinister with the final one culminating in the player having to commit suicide.
The National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights in May wrote to the Electronics Ministry to take appropriate action. The Ministry asked its technical bodies what action could be taken. Based on the responses the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology concluded that no action could be taken to identify and block the game. However, the Ministry has written to social media service providers to take the necessary action, especially after an incident in Mumbai when a youth lost his life allegedly due to playing the game.
Comments
0 comment