Ghaziabad teen deaths: What will stop the next tragedy? | AI with Sanket

What happened inside a ninth-floor apartment in Ghaziabad was not a freak incident or a one-off family tragedy — it was the outcome of a system that allowed vulnerable children to slip entirely out of social, educational, and institutional protection.

Three sisters, aged 16, 14 and 12, died by suicide after withdrawing from school, retreating into an online fantasy world, and becoming deeply immersed in task-based gaming content that blurred the line between play, identity and control.

The Federal spoke to Vikram Singh, former Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police, and child psychologist Aarti C Rajaratnam to examine how online gaming ecosystems exploit psychological vulnerabilities — and why governments, not just parents, must be held accountable.

The Ghaziabad case

Police investigations show that the three sisters had not attended school for nearly two years. They lived almost entirely indoors, had minimal social contact, and relied on a single shared mobile phone for entertainment and connection to the outside world. Their diary and handwritten notes, recovered from the flat, revealed intense loneliness, emotional isolation and a deep attachment to Korean popular culture and online games.

Investigators found repeated references to alternate identities, imagined relationships and a sense of belonging that existed only online. The girls had adopted different names among themselves and described Korea not as an interest, but as a place they believed they belonged to.

The immediate trigger, police say, may have been the removal of the phone due to financial distress in the household. What followed was a coordinated act that reflected long-term emotional withdrawal rather than an impulsive decision.

Online games and psychological control

While no single app has been officially identified as the direct cause, the diary and digital traces pointed to the girls’ exposure to task-based horror and puzzle games such as Poppy Playtime, The Baby in Yellow, Ice Scream and Evil Nun. These games rely on immersive storytelling, escalating tasks and fear-based environments where players are rewarded for compliance and endurance.

According to Vikram Singh, such platforms do more than entertain. They create simulated emotional bonds and substitute real-world authority structures with algorithm-driven validation. In extreme cases, he said, these systems condition impressionable users to accept instructions without questioning intent or consequence.

Singh warned that law enforcement and regulators are failing to recognise the cumulative impact of such digital environments, especially when children lack parallel anchors such as school routines, peer interaction or adult supervision.

A global problem, not an Indian exception

Rajaratnam stressed that the Ghaziabad case mirrors patterns seen globally. Countries across Europe and East Asia have begun restricting social media and gaming access for children, recognising that algorithmic design is intentionally addictive.

She explained that online gaming operates within a massive attention economy, where billions are invested in keeping users engaged for as long as possible. Children, she noted, are particularly vulnerable because their emotional regulation, risk assessment and self-soothing abilities are still developing.

Rajaratnam pointed out that children are not passive consumers in this ecosystem — they are the product. Their data, time and emotional engagement are monetised, while safeguards remain weak or absent.

Family collapse and institutional absence

Beyond gaming, the panel highlighted the complete breakdown of protective structures around the girls. They lived in an unusual family arrangement, with the father claiming to have married three sisters — a structure police say is legally unclear. Financial stress, overcrowding, lack of schooling and absence of external oversight created conditions where isolation could deepen unnoticed.

Singh described this as a failure not just of parenting, but of governance. When children disappear from schools, he argued, there should be automatic intervention by education authorities, child welfare agencies and local administration.

The absence of any institutional alarm — despite prolonged school dropout — allowed the girls’ world to shrink entirely into the digital space.

Why parenting alone is not enough

While both panellists emphasised the importance of emotionally responsive, or “attuned”, parenting, they rejected the idea that parental vigilance alone can counter billion-dollar digital platforms.

Rajaratnam explained that constant screen-based soothing deprives children of the ability to self-regulate distress. Over time, this leads to dependency, emotional dysregulation and a heightened need for external validation — conditions easily exploited by online games.

Singh added that expecting parents to outsmart opaque algorithms and peer-driven digital cultures is unrealistic. Without institutional regulation, parental control remains reactive rather than preventive.

Role of the state and institutions

Both experts argued for urgent policy intervention. Singh called for mandatory certification of digital games and applications, with expert-led screening to identify content that poses psychological risk to minors. Platforms that facilitate or encourage self-harm, he said, should face criminal liability under existing IT and abetment laws.

Educational institutions, he added, must also take responsibility by restricting harmful digital access on campuses and actively monitoring behavioural red flags.

Rajaratnam stressed the need to rebuild offline ecosystems — safe play spaces, affordable extracurricular activities and community interaction — so that children have real-world alternatives to digital immersion.

A warning beyond Ghaziabad

The Ghaziabad sisters’ deaths have forced a reckoning with uncomfortable truths about childhood in the digital age. When education collapses, family systems fracture and institutions remain absent, online worlds step in — not as neutral spaces, but as engineered environments designed to capture attention and obedience.

As both panellists warned, without coordinated action from families, schools, regulators and governments, such tragedies will not remain isolated incidents.

Suicides can be prevented. For help please call suicide prevention helplines: Neha Suicide Prevention Centre – 044-2464 0050; Aasara Helpline for Suicide Prevention, Emotional Support and Trauma Help — +91-98204 66726; Kiran, Mental Health Rehabilitation — 1800-599-0019, Disha 0471-2552056, Maithri 0484-2540530 and Sneha’s Suicide Prevention Helpline 044-2464 0050.

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