Remember Blue Whale? Sister suicides bring back spotlight on addictive online games
As police link the Ghaziabad minors’ suicides to Korean Love Game, eerie parallels emerge with past online challenge-based games that claimed young lives
The shocking incident of three Ghaziabad sisters dying by suicide has once again brought addictive task-based online games to the limelight.
In the early hours of Wednesday (February 4), three girls aged 16, 14 and 12 jumped from the ninth floor of their apartment building after leaving a handwritten note that read “sorry papa” with a crying emoji.
While the police haven’t conclusively linked the suicide to “fatal” online games, the initial investigation has reportedly revealed that the girls were addicted to a Korean challenge-based game called Korean Love Game.
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The sisters’ father, Chetan Kumar, said he used to bar them from playing the game. However, the girls were unwilling to give it up, he said. “Papa, we cannot leave the game. Korean is our life, Korean is everything, you cannot separate it from us,” they had reportedly told him, indicating the extent of the influence of Korean culture on their young minds.
What is Korean Love Game?
The Korean Love Game is a challenge-based app game. In this ‘romantic’ game, one interacts with a virtual partner who communicates with them in Korean, sends affectionate messages and assigns daily tasks.
Initial tasks involve simple challenges like chatting, sharing pictures, and waking up in the middle of the night. As the days progress, the difficulty of the tasks increases, involving self-harm and isolation, with the final task being committing suicide on the 50th day.
This online game is not available on common platforms like Google Play or Apple Play Store. It is reportedly spread through private links, messaging platforms, and online communities rather than official marketplaces. This interactive game gained popularity among young people fascinated by the Korean culture, including K-drama, K-pop, fashion and music.
Blue Whale Challenge
The format of this game is eerily similar to a game that claimed the lives of many young people in 2016. Originated in Russia, Blue Whale Challenge rose to prominence globally in 2016 after reports of youngsters dying by suicide as part of the Day 50 challenge.
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In this game, too, participants were given daily challenges by administrators over about 50 days, starting with harmless tasks but gradually escalating to self-harm, with the final task allegedly urging suicide.
Deja vu
Similar social media influencing games in the past that have proved dangerous are Momo Challenge and Blackout challenge.
In Momo Challenge, which made headlines in 2018, children and adolescents were subjected to harassment by a user named Momo, who allegedly pushed them towards a sequence of hazardous challenges involving violence, self-harm, harm to others, and suicide.
The Blackout Challenge is an online phenomenon that restricts oxygen supply to the brain. It rose to prominence on TikTok in 2021, mainly among children, and has been compared to other digital challenges and hoaxes targeting young audiences.(Suicides can be prevented. For help please call Suicide Prevention Helplines: Neha Suicide Prevention Centre – 044-24640050; Aasara helpline for suicide prevention, emotional support & trauma help — +91-9820466726; Kiran, Mental health rehabilitation — 1800-599-0019, Disha 0471- 2552056, Maithri 0484 2540530, and Sneha’s suicide prevention helpline 044-24640050.)