Georgian Parents Link Son’s Suicide Attempt to Online Social Networking Game
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Wednesday, December 20
(BATUMI, Georgia) —The Parents of a 17-year-old boy in Georgia’s western Khelvachauri region claim their son’s recent suicide attempt was linked to a computer game known as Blue Whale that encourages teenagers to commit suicide.
“We know that he played the Blue Whale game. We think the suicide attempt was tied to the game,” the parents of the boy told the local media.
The unnamed teenager survived a suicide attempt on Monday after suffering from multiple self-inflicted injures.
The latest incident comes after a number of teenage suicide cases earlier this year.
In October, the interior ministry released a statement claiming they found no connections between the suicide cases and the Blue Whale phenomenon.
The Blue Whale Game, also known as Blue Whale Challenge, is a social networking game that consists of a series of tasks assigned to players by administrators. The final challenge requires the player to commit suicide.
The Blue Whale came to prominence in May 2016 through an article in Russian daily, Novaya Gazeta, which linked several teenage suicides to members of a social media group on Russia’s Facebook analog, VKontakte.
