Supreme Court labels Blue Whale game as a “national problem”

The Supreme Court on Friday called the Blue Whale Challenge a “national problem” after hearing a plea to ban the deadly game responsible for deaths across the country so far.

Responding to a petition filed by 73-year-old Chennai-based advocate N S Ponnaiah, the Supreme Court after hearing from both parties said the game “is dangerous to life and needs to be condemned”.

Ponnaiah had raised questions on the game after it led to more than 100 suicides across the country.

In a bid to further increase public awareness, the Supreme Court even directed national broadcaster Doordarshan to stitch together a programme on the “evil impact” of Blue Whale Challenge and telecast it during prime time.

Also Read: Blue Whale Challenge deaths: State governments are rightly banning the game, but is it effective?

The apex court added that the programme must be aired by private channels too.

Blue whale game ban plea: The Supreme Court observed that Blue Whale game is a national problem

— ANI (@ANI) October 27, 2017

The Centre told the Supreme Court that it has set up an expert committee to look into the matter and will file a report on the same within three weeks.

The Supreme Court also asked Centre to set up a panel of experts to block dangerous virtual games like the 'Choking game', 'Salt and Ice Challenge', 'Fire Challenge', 'Cutting challenge', 'Eyeball challenge' and 'Human Embroidery game'.

On October 13, the Supreme Court had asked the Centre to form the panel to find ways to block Blue Whale Challenge.

Also Read: Blue Whale Challenge victim's father regrets not getting son diagnosed ahead of incident

The Blue Whale Challenge is a suicide game that originated in Russia, asks users to complete brutal tasks over a 50-day period. The tasks would get more daunting and difficult as the game progresses.

The final task asks the participants to commit suicide.

Delhi High Court had previously passed an order for search engines like Google and Yahoo asking them to pull down all possible links of the game.

Also Read: 'Russia willing to assist in controlling Blue Whale Challenge'

More recently, on September 4, the Madras High Court had asked the Centre and Tamil Nadu government to explore if Blue Whale Challenge could be banned.

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