‘Blue whale or bully assail’? Psychological correlates of ‘blue whale challenge’ as a tool for cyberbullying in India

Pages: 620-626
Meera Hirani and Abha Singh (Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences, Amity University Noida, Noida, Uttar Pradesh)

The notorious Blue Whale Challenge (BWC) on Internet has claimed many teenagers’ lives abroad and in India. In India, there had been a steady upsurge in suicides, suicide attempts and self-harming behaviour among teenagers in the year 2017. Up to five suicide deaths and many suicide attempts have been attributed to the pro-suicide online challenge. The aim of the paper is to provide a comprehensive review of all the reported cases published by media in India regarding BWC. Keywords such as “blue whale suicide challenge”, “attempted suicides due to blue whale challenge”, “reported cases related to blue whale challenge” were used to collect the necessary information from the Internet. National newspapers were screened for relevant information regarding factual information. The concept of BWC as a tool for mass cyberbullying, its causes, effects have been discussed. Analysis of each reported case has been done to construct a psychological perspective of the probable reasons behind each of the suicides and self-harming behaviour which could be taken as pointers for further investigation by forensic experts. The remedies under Information Technology Act 2008 to handle cyberbullying and also preventive measures for the victim, family and educational setting to tackle the problem of BWC and cyberbullying has been detailed. There is an urgent need to understand the underlying reasons behind BWC, cyberbullying, self-harm by participants leading to extreme step of committing suicides. The remedies and preventive measures to evade this problem has been discussed. BWC seems to be a psychological predatory mass cyberbullying tool however due to media attention, the possibility of attributing BWC as a cause to self-harm in many of the reported cases in India has been suggested.