State police have issued an unusual “Community Awareness Bulletin” aimed especially at parents whose children may be involved in “social media challenges and pranks”.
The bulletin warns that there are some so-called “challenges” that can lead to serious injury or even death, and adolescents are often most vulnerable. One is called the Blue Whale Challenge, that originated in Russia in 2015 and has now made its way to the U.S. It involves a player completing fifty challenges in fifty days, including self-mutilation and committing suicide by jumping off a roof or in front of a train on the fiftieth day. In the late stages of the game, players are instructed to delete evidence of the challenge from their social media accounts. There have been at least two deaths in the United States from players completing the challenge.
Police say the Blue Whale is just one dangerous online trend. They encourage parents to watch for possible indicators that their children are engaging in risky behavior, including becoming secretive and obsessive with their devices, getting odd phone calls or text messages, withdrawing from family and friends, oversharing personal information online, and evidence of self-mutilation or unexplained cuts, bruises, of burns.
