After over 100 suicide cases, SC likely to decide on Blue Whale game ban today

The Supreme Court is likely to decide on a plea seeking a blanket ban on Blue Whale Challenge.

New Delhi: With the deadly online game Blue Whale claiming over 100 lives in the recent past, the Supreme Court is likely to decide on a plea seeking a blanket ban on it.

The apex court, which will take up the case on Friday, had earlier directed the Centre to constitute a panel of experts to block such life-threatening online games.

Concerned over the loss of innocent lives, a Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, had also sought the Centre's response on a batch of petitions seeking to block similar games like Choking game, Salt and Ice Challenge, Fire Challenge, Cutting challenge, Eyeball challenge and Human Embroidery game.    

A 73-year-old Chennai-based advocate NS Ponnaiah, who blamed the deadly Blue Whale game for over 100 suicides throughout the country, had earlier filed a petition seeking a blanket ban on it.

Blue Whale Challenge is an online game that challenges players for over 50 days, demanding them to complete tasks given by an anonymous controller.

The game initially asks the player to draw a whale on a piece of paper, then carve a whale figure on their body, and then gives other tasks such as watching horror movies alone on odd hours etc. 

The task concludes with the final challenge that is committing suicide. 

A group of cyber experts had recently warned that a number of fictitious Blue Whale gaming apps and malware are still available on the internet which lure users to download them and in the process steal their personal information.

With ANI inputs