6.2 KiB
| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Whale Challenge | 2/4 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Whale_Challenge | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:29:41.776773+00:00 | kb-cron |
== Arrests == In 2016, Philipp Budeikin, a 21-year-old former psychology student who was expelled from his university, claimed that he invented the game in 2013. According to Budeikin, its purpose is to "clean society of biological wastes", as he intended to "clean" society from individuals who were deemed as having no value and considered as burdens. Although originally claiming innocence and stating he was "just having fun", Budeikin was arrested and held in Kresty Prison, Saint Petersburg, and in May 2016 pled guilty to "inciting at least 16 teenage girls to commit suicide". He was later convicted on two counts of inciting suicide of a minor. Commentators such as Benjamin Radford have pointed out that sensationalized stories in world news regarding the involvement of Budeikin have all linked back to just two Russian sources, with tabloid news outlets replicating the same information without elaboration. In June 2017, postman Ilya Sidorov was arrested in Moscow, also accused of setting up a Blue Whale group to encourage children to self-harm and ultimately commit suicide. He claimed to have persuaded 32 children to join his group and follow his commands. In June 2018, Russian financial analyst Nikita Nearonov was arrested for allegedly masterminding the Blue Whale game. Nearonov is suspected of grooming 10 underage girls in order to bring them to suicide, two of whom, aged 14 and 17, are known to have survived. As a financial analyst, Nearonov has been described as a computer expert who held a large amount of contempt for teenagers, believing that they were "wicked" and "deserved to die". Police reports claim that Nearonov's involvement in the Blue Whale game was his "hobby".
== Alleged incidents ==
=== Armenia === According to news reports, the cause of death of 15-year-old Hrachya Nersisyan, who died by suicide, was the game "Blue Whale". According to the head of the department for the Protection of Minors' Rights and Combating Domestic Violence of the Main Criminal Investigation Department of the Armenian Police, Nelly Duryan, the Armenian segment of the Internet is flooded with messages about this "game", but there are no final conclusions on this issue yet.
=== Australia === Although no reports of suicides in Australia have been linked to the game, an investigation by an Australian journalist on Kidspot reportedly confirmed the existence of the game.
=== Bangladesh === Despite many news reports published in Bangladeshi media attempting to link suicides with the game, no case has been officially confirmed. In October 2017, Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan stated that the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission has been directed to investigate the Blue Whale game after reports of suicide around the country. BTRC released a notice urging people to call a specific number if any web link or any information related to the Blue Whale game were to be found. Later that month, the Bangladeshi High Court ordered a six-month ban on special night-time internet packages provided by various mobile operators across the country.
=== Brazil === Despite several news reports in Brazilian media linking cases of child self-harm and suicide with Blue Whale and several ongoing investigations, none have been officially confirmed. In response to the game, a designer and a publicity agent from São Paulo created a movement called Baleia Rosa (Pink Whale), which became popular. It relied on the collaboration of hundreds of volunteers. The movement was based on positive tasks that value life and combat depression. Another movement, the Capivara Amarela (Yellow Capybara), was created by Sandro Sanfelice, and proposed to "combat the Blue Whale game" and guide people seeking some kind of help. Participants were separated into either challengers, who are the people who need guidance, or healers, who are a kind of sponsor to the challengers. An Adventist school in southern Paraná, in partnership with other education networks, also sought to reverse the situation by proposing another charity game, the "Jonas Challenge" (referring to the biblical character Jonah, who was swallowed by a whale and vomited up three days later). Other games created in Brazil in response to the Blue Whale were the Baleia Verde (Green Whale) and the Preguiça Azul (Blue Sloth). In Belo Horizonte and Recife metropolitan area in Brazil, many schools promoted lectures to talk about the Blue Whale game. On May 21, 2017, it was announced that the Brazilian police Specialized in High Technology Crime Repression in Piauí were preparing a digital primer to warn young people about the dangers of the game.
=== Bulgaria === The first media reports of the game in Bulgaria appeared in mid-February 2017. However, the game was dismissed as a hoax by the Georgi Apostolov Centre.
=== Chile === The first alleged case of the game in Chile was reported in April 2017 in Antofagasta, after a 12-year-old girl was seen with 15 cuts on her arm, which formed a "whale".
=== China === In May 2017, Tencent, China's largest Internet service portal, closed 12 suspicious Blue Whale-related network groups on its social networking platform QQ. It said that the number of this kind of groups is on the rise. The search results of related keywords were also blocked.
=== Egypt === In April 2018, Egyptian news sources claimed a 12-year-old schoolboy had killed himself by taking poisonous tablets to fulfill one of the challenges of the game. According to the media, the schoolboy was found with a scar in the shape of a blue whale on his right arm. In reaction to the growing media awareness of the game, Egypt's Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah uploaded a video on their YouTube channel claiming that the game is forbidden in Islam, and warning against it. As of 2025, about 26 suicides in Egypt have been associated with Blue Whale challenge, though the actual number is said to be higher.
=== Germany === In 2017, a 13-year-old girl from Radevormwald, North Rhine-Westphalia, was reported to have scratched a blue whale on her arm as part of the game. The game was allegedly found on her phone.