Delhi High Court hears plea against deadly Blue Whale game

The Delhi High Court today heard a plea against the challenge-based game Blue Whale, which has allegedly been responsible for the deaths of several children and young adults..The game allegedly consists of a series of tasks assigned to players during a said period, with the final challenge requiring the player to end his/her life..The plea filed by Advocate Gurmeet Singh was mentioned yesterday before the Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar and sought directions to companies like Google, Facebook and Yahoo to take down links to the game and also to restrain them from uploading any content connected to the game..The petition submitted that,.“There are many children and people being adversely affected by this menace namely the blue whale challenge/ game and they do not even know that the same will cost their life and their families will suffer heavily……..children below the age of 18 are constantly trying to play the said game and have succumbed to death and grevious injuries..It would be practical, suggested and in the interest of justice that the respondents (Google, Facebook, Yahoo) are restrained not to post / allow to post, upload / allow to upload any material / information pertaining to the Blue Whale (Challenge / Game)…..”.The plea mentioned six incidents related to the Blue Whale challenge that have taken place in India and also enlisted numerous other incidents in various parts of the world including China, Brazil, Argentina, Italy and Russia..The Court asked as to how the game is influencing adults..“We understand children getting influenced but why are so many adults doing such things?”.The petitioner also sought the constitution of a team to ensure that all the links and other material relating to the game are taken down from the cyber space..The Bench, however, refrained from passing any order and stated that the cyber crime investigation teams are understaffed and would not be able to implement any such ban..The Court asked the Central government as to whether any order has been passed by it to block the controversial game..The matter will be next heard August 22..Image taken from here.