Madurai: The Tamil Nadu Home secretary and the Director General of Police (DGP) have informed the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday that they have blocked the dangerous online 'Blue Whale Challenge' game (a video game) in the state.
Special public prosecutor, P.Govindarajan, appearing for the state government told a division bench comprising Justices K.K. Sasidharan and G.R. Swaminathan that the DGP also has given instructions to the police across the state to take stringent action against people who were found to be sharing the game link through social media, mainly through Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and Yahoo mail.
Taking cognizance of Newspaper reports on 'Blue Whale Game' induced suicide of a college student J Vignesh (19) from Vilacherry, Madurai, on August 30, the high court suo motu took up the issue in view of the larger public interest on Friday last.
Mr. Govindarajan made the submission when the case was heard in the court Monday. While stressing the urgent need for measures to safeguard the youth from falling pray to the game, and to provide counselling to those who got addicted to it, Justice Sasidharan impleaded the director of the Indian Institute of Technology, (IIT), Madras, and two senior CBCID officers as respondents in the case.
The court sought to know how to prevent the game from being shared through social media. The court posted the next hearing in the case to September 8. The 'Blue Whale Challenge' is reportedly a suicide game in which the player is given certain tasks to complete over a period of 50 days and the final task leads him or her to commit suicide. The player is also asked to share photos after finishing each challenge. The game has claimed several lives worldwide.
