After Blue Whale Challenge, other online death games come under Supreme Court scanner

After the deadly Blue Whale Challenge claimed at least three lives in the country and spread widespread panic, other lethal web challenges like Choking Game and Human Embroidery come under SC scanner.

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PIL seeks intervention of parents, teachers & police to tackle menace of online challenges like Blue Whale and Choking Game.
PIL seeks intervention of parents, teachers & police to tackle menace of online challenges like Blue Whale and Choking Game.

After the deadly Blue Whale Challenge that has allegedly sparked a spate of suicides across the country, many more twisted online games that goad vulnerable teens into killing themselves could face a ban in India.

The Supreme Court on Friday sought the view of the Centre on a public interest litigation filed by lawyer Sneha Kalita who drew its attention to several other such perverse pastimes like Choking Game, Salt and Ice Challenge, Fire Challenge, Cutting Challenge, Eyeball Challenge and Human Embroidery. Kalita argued that these games too have the potential to cause fatalities or serious damage to the life and psyche of youth and said it was the "responsibility of all the stakeholders to curb this menace and prevent its further spreading like cyber virus amongst the teenagers just like the Blue Whale Challenge".

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Experts say the expansion of internet connectivity and social media has created new opportunities for entering into suicide pacts, with "curators" cajoling teens into risky behaviour.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra tagged the petition along with another one pending in the SC, seeking a court-monitored complete ban on the Blue Whale challenge which has allegedly claimed several lives in the country. Seeking the Centre's view, the court asked if the government had any plan to set up an expert committee to deal with such games which have created a crisis situation within the children and youth community.

The apex court has sought the assistance of attorney general KK Venugopal in the matter. Indicating it is likely to issue some significant orders, the bench also stopped the Delhi High Court from hearing any similar petitions. A plea seeking complete ban on the Blue Whale game is pending before the HC.

"Like the Blue Whale challenge there are several other games around and if we don't prevent or make any filtering, these kind of games too would assume dangerous proportions," senior advocate Vijay Hansaria, who was representing Kalita, told the bench, seeking direction for framing guidelines to regulate and monitor virtual sports.

"All stakeholders, be it parents, teachers, professors, police and other authorities, must collectively tackle this menace by advocating awareness. Parents should be more vigilant about the online activities of their children and speak to them immediately if they feel suspicious about their child's behavior," the petition said.

With rising number of children allegedly succumbing to Blue Whale, the top court had on September 16 asked the Centre why the suicides were continuing despite a ban. The CJI sought to know what has been the effect of the August 6, 2017 direction by the government to social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to remove the link of the controversial game in which dangerous tasks like self-inflicting of wounds are assigned to the player by administrators during a 50-day period.

The bench also wanted to know what has happened after the intervention of the Delhi and Madras high courts. The Ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY) had also instructed these websites to report anyone advocating or promoting this game to law enforcement agencies.

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The government is concerned about the availability of such games on the internet. An administrator of the game uses social media to invite or incite children to play this game, which may eventually lead the child to take extreme steps, including suicide, the MeitY notification had said.

The game has so far purportedly led to over a 100 deaths in the US, China and other countries.