Citation

Upadhyaya M, Kozman M. Prim. Care Companion CNS Disord. 2022; 24(5): 22cr03314.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Physicians Postgraduate Press)

DOI

10.4088/PCC.22cr03314

PMID

36251977

Abstract

The Blue Whale Challenge is a suicide "game" that first appeared on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram in 2017.1 Apparently originating in Russia, the fad became a worldwide phenomenon in subsequent years. The challenge occurs over the course of 50 days, during which "players" are instructed by "administrators" to engage in daily tasks involving increasingly injurious forms of self-harm. The name of the challenge originates from an unexplained phenomenon wherein whales, highly social animals that travel in herds, stray from the herd and beach themselves in a seemingly deliberate manner, causing their demise.2

During the initial days of the challenge, a participant might be given a task like "watch a horror movie."2-4 Then, they may be asked to "drink coffee and stay up all night," followed by "put on headphones and listen to heavy metal music at the highest volume until your ears bleed." Subsequent tasks might include pulling off dangerous stunts in traffic, ingesting poisonous liquids, cutting or burning skin, and deliberately fracturing bones. The final task, on the 50th day, is to commit suicide, usually in a public setting. Participants are encouraged to make videos of themselves completing their daily tasks and post these videos on social media, with the inclusion of certain hashtags allowing videos to be found and identified with the challenge. Given the popularity of this challenge, participants are frequently motivated by the social media followers they accumulate as they progress through the 50 days and the number of views their videos receive. They frequently complete suicide by jumping off the balcony of a high-rise building, often yelling, screaming, and causing a commotion to attract a crowd, with the expectation an onlooker will take a video of the spectacle and post it on social media, so the final "feat" might have an even larger audience.

Language: en