PESHAWAR: A psychiatrist at Peshawar’s Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) on Thursday reportedly confirmed about two boys – aged 19 and 21 – suffering from severe depression while trying to accomplish the Blue Whale challenges.
“The boys have approached me for treatment after realising that the game would harm them,” told Dr Imran Khan to a local English daily.
Without naming the boys, Dr Khan said one of the boys was an IT expert who was just checking if the game was really fatal or not.
“The young men opted to play the game,[but] as the challenge progressed, the tasks became increasingly bizarre such as being asked to carve a whale into their arm, which prompted them to stop and seek medical help,” he further said.
The game originated from Russia back in 2013 and Philip Budekin, a 21-year-old Russian, is the evil mastermind behind it.
According to a Russian newspaper, this game is responsible for “130 suicides (globally) that took place between November 2015 to April 2016.”
However, no suicides linked to Blue Whale have been reported in Pakistan, but a few impressionable young children have fallen into the trap of this game.
The game is essentially a 50-day challenge in which the players have to perform a set of tasks given to them.
As the game progresses the tasks get more gross and inhumane.
Some of the tasks which we have been able to find out include carving a whale on your arm, watching scary videos all day, cutting your lip, and poking yourself with a needle.
The game is said to drive people to the edge that they end up committing suicide.
