Infamous Internet: The ‘Blue Whale’ Challenge

The Blue Whale Challenge is a 'social media phenomenon' dating back to 2016. It was supposedly an online game that led hundreds of children to commit suicide over a 50 day period. TW - suicide!

What is it? 

The story goes that the 'Blue Whale Challenge' was an online game that took place over the course of 50 days. Run by anonymous administrators, teenagers who played the game were given 50 different tasks over 50 days. At first the tasks were fairly innocuous. Challenges were set such as "wake up at 4.30am" and "watch a horror" movie. But as the days ticked by, as the teenagers fell deeper and deeper into the game, the challenges become more and more sinister.  

"Stand on the ledge of a tower block" 

"Carve a whale into your arm" 

And finally...  

"Kill yourself." 

Though the game began in Russia, it very quickly spread to other countries such as Ukraine and the United States. Suddenly the whole world was watching and the mass panic began to spread.  

The truth: 

The 'Blue Whale Challenge' began as many modern urban legends do, within conversations in online forums. In November of 2015, a Russian teenager posted a selfie online with the caption "nya bye" before completing suicide. (Please note that, while the name of this girl is out there, I will not be using it in this article out of respect). Her death became a topic of conversation amongst online forums, and quickly, rumour found a way to distort the truth.  

VKontakte, or VK, is Russia's largest social network, and hosts thousands of different forums within it. These forums, often operated and populated by teens, gave kids a space to talk about anything and everything from homework and boys, to mental health and bullying. Though the death of the young girl was being discussed in these forums, nobody in them knew the real background behind her actions. Because of this, gossip and doctored images began to spread, changing the details of the suicide to fit different stories.  

The challenge itself first appeared in a news article for a local Russian newspaper (Novaya Gazeta) in May of 2016. The article claimed that it could link 130 teenage suicides to a group found on the Russian owned social networking site 'VK'. Quickly, the article garnered criticism, not least for the origin of the number 130. But it turned out that this number had not just been made up by the journalist for shock value.  The number actually came from a parent of one of the 130.  

Around Christmas of 2015, Sergey Pestov's daughter lost her life to suicide. After discovering some of the discussions his daughter had been a part of online, Sergey and his wife founded an organisation which they called 'Saving Children from Cybercrime'. Through this organisation, he conducted research through both open and media sources to find other teenage suicides that he felt could be connected to the suicide groups. From this, he produced a brochure including the now infamous 130.  

Though the journalist behind the Novaya Gazeta article denies that Sergey was the sole source of the number she went on to report, the truth really is up for debate. Many people believe that the entire beginning of this phenomena and the outrage it went on to spark globally, could all just come down to the coping mechanisms of a father deep in grief.  

In addition to this, as the story unravelled, the identities of several administrators running their own Blue Whale games were revealed to be no more than children themselves. Most of them, according to Alexandra Arkhipova, a professor in Folklore Studies at the Russian State University for the Humanities, were 12 to 14 year olds who were caught up in the excitement and taboo of the myth.  

Why Blue Whales? 

The question on everybody's mind. What was the relevance that this so-called suicide game had to the large animal? Well, like everything surrounding this legend, we don't know for sure.  

Some people claim that it came about due to the phenomena in which whales will beach themselves, something that scientists have not yet been able to explain.  

Other people relate the blue whale connection to lyrics from a song by Lumen, a Russian rock band, featuring a "huge blue whale" that "can't break through the net". Though this is purely personal opinion, I think the latter idea makes more sense for a game centred around teenagers struggling with mental health.  

So what happened? 

Despite being vastly recognised as a hoax, several police forces within Russia and other countries released official statements drawing awareness to the rising concern surrounding the 'Ble Whale Challenge'. And though the game itself may not be as real as we were led to believe, it is highly possible that the popularity it gained did lead to at least a few instances of self-harm and suicide amongst teens.  

In November of 2016, a 21 year old named Philipp Budeikin was arrested with 'inciting teenagers to suicide'. According to Budeikin, he created the game back in 2013 as a means of "cleaning society of biological wastes" by ridding the world of people that he deemed to have no use or value. He went on to plead guilty to his charges and was sentenced to spend three years in prison.  

Since then, there have been at least two other arrests made for individuals suspected of creating and operating their own 'Blue Whale' games online. 

But if the game is a hoax that never really existed, why did Philipp Budeikin confess? According to friends of his, the 21 year old was far from a calculating evil genius. In fact, his main focus had always been on gaining followers to bring attention to his budding music career.  

Budeikin was an aspiring 'witch house' musician (a type of electronic music with occult themes) who would often post shock content in VK forums in order to gain attention. Namely, he did this frequently with content about the original girl's death from 2015. And he isn't alone, as this sort of shock value content was an incredibly popular technique on the platform.  

When he was arrested, Budeikin was being charged with 15 different counts. Since that time, all but one has collapsed. I haven't been able to find any further updates on the man currently sat behind bars, but it seems likely that despite his misdeeds, he might not be the criminal the world thinks he is. That, of course, doesn't mean he is innocent. But only time can really tell.  

Why? 

So do we have any idea why this challenge gained so much popularity? Well, the truth of the matter is that Russia has one of the highest rates of adolescent suicide in the world. For as tragic as the whole thing is, there is no one perfect explanation for why young people complete suicide. But the likelihood that it can be neatly explained by a vicious anonymous game? Slim, at best.