New Delhi: Taking note of several suicides of young boys and girls across the country after being lured to the online ‘blue whale’ game, the Supreme Court on Friday sought the Centre’s response on a PIL seeking a ban on the game.
After hearing counsel Jaya Sukin, a three-judge Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud also sought the assistance of Attorney General K.K. Venugopal on the PIL filed by a Madurai-based advocate N.S. Ponnaiah and posted the matter for further listing after three weeks.
The petitioner submitted that the blue whale online game, was inducing adults and young children to play that game and goads young people into killing themselves. This online game, which encourages people to take part in it had become increasingly dangerous and harmful as “Once you enter you cannot exit’’.
According to the petitioner not only college and school students but also others had resorted to playing this game. Quoting media reports, he said over 200 persons had committed suicide after participating in this online game and most of them are under 15 years.
He pointed out that this game is growing popularity through Facebook, Google, WhatsApp Instagram, Microsoft and Yahoo and unless immediate steps are taken to ban this game, there would be more deaths in the country. There is need to create awareness among youngsters not to participate in this game. The petitioner submitted that recently Madurai city police confirmed that a college student had committed suicide after playing blue whale game and that he had promoted the game to more than 150 friends.
The commissioner had said that many people were rescued from the fatal blue whale game and those rescued had admitted that they were lucky to survive. ‘He said parents in India are worried that their children would become a victim of this game. As the Centre had so far not taken steps to ban this game, he prayed for a direction to the Union of India to ban this game immediately.
