Police in Russia are investigating whether a spate of suicides among young people has been sparked by a sinister social media game called Blue Whale.
Two schoolgirls, aged 15 and 16, fell to their deaths from a 14-storey block of flats, another, aged 15, fell from a fifth floor flat, while a 14-year-old girl died after being hit by a train.
Detectives are looking into the theory that they took part in tasks in the run-up to their deaths.
Yulia Konstantinova, 15, left a note on social media saying ‘end’ shortly after posting a picture with a blue whale while her friend Veronika Volkova, 16, wrote ‘Sense is lost… End.’ before she took her own life.
It was reported that two teenage boys were detained by police at the scene after allegedly filming the tragic double suicide.
The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a probe on ‘incitement to suicide’ regarding the pair’s death.
‘Investigators checked the scene, the homes of the minors, and interviewed relatives and friends of the victims, to establish the motives,’ said a statement.
‘Particular attention during the investigation of the criminal case will be given to the study of their social contacts on the internet.’
In Krasnoyarsk, law enforcement recently opened three criminal cases of incitement to suicide involving schoolgirls via the groups in social media.
In all these cases, the teenagers were rescued.
One local school director told police he had received an anonymous call saying a student had joined a ‘group of death’ and planned to kill herself soon.
The police identified the girl who explained that had had joined a ‘game’ in social media network ‘Vkontakte’, and had been given ‘ tasks’ by the administrator of the group.
She did not obey the commands – but there are fears that others did.
In the Chita case, transport police confirmed that the so-called suicide game ‘Blue Whale’ is seen as a possible ’cause of death’.
A second girl had made plans to kill herself with the dead teenager, but changed her mind at the last moment.
Teenagers are urged to use a knife or razor to make the shape of a whale on their wrist or leg, say Russian reports.
They are also urged to watch horror movies all day, and to wake themselves at 4.20am, steps leading up to demands to take their own lives on the 50th day being in the game.
There was deep concern last year when there were fears that the sinister masterminds could be behind at least 130 suicides across Russia.
After the arrest of a supposed ringleader, there was a reduction in cases, but now there is major new fear of vulnerable teenagers being swayed by the barbaric death social media accounts.
Investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported last year: ‘We have counted 130 suicides of children that took place between November 2015 to April 2016.
‘Almost all these children were members of the same internet groups and lived in good, happy families.’
It went on: ‘We know absolutely for sure is that adults are working with children, with the help of knowledge of their habits and passions, using their favourite language and culture,’ reported the newspaper.
‘They know psychology well, they convince girls that they are ‘fat’, tell boys that they are ‘losers’ in this world. And that there is another world and they will be among the chosen.’
A report on Ren TV said that an internal report by the FSB secret service, once headed by Vladimir Putin, ‘indicated that the problem of provoking suicides among underage children via Internet is really serious’.
Last year an alleged ringleader named as 21 year old Philipp Budeikin was detained, and he has been charged with organising eight groups between 2013 and 2016 which ‘promote suicide’.
Some 15 teenagers committed suicide, and another five were rescued at the last moment, according to the case against him.
Children are told on such social media that ‘the best things in life start with the letter ‘S’ – semiya (family), Saturday, sex, suicide.’
A song tells them: ‘We have left for the open space, we have nothing left in this world’.
The children are asked: ‘How many dull days like this are you going to drag yourself through?’
A picture of an approaching train has a sign: ‘This world is not for us.’
A photograph of teens on a roof is captioned: ‘We are children of the dead generation.’
source: metro.co.uk - picture: East2West