ICSE in West Bengal to sensitise children on online gaming, internet addiction

Kolkata: Amid concerns over the `Blue Whale game` phenomenon that has taken several lives globally, including in India, the Association of ICSE Schools in West Bengal will hold a sensitisation workshop on online gaming and internet addiction, covering around 200 schools.

"We are scheduled to have a workshop between second and third week of September. The issues are online gaming and addiction to internet. Resource person has been briefed to not mention any specific game but to tell the children about the dangers and certain outcomes," association secretary Nabarun De told IANS.

The workshop involving students and faculty as well as experts is optional.

"We have 285 member schools in Bengal, out of which around 50 are in the north Bengal hills. Since they are not functional now due to the agitation, we are expecting to cover about 225 schools. The schools, which already have held such sensitisation programmes, can opt to not participate. So we can expect 200 schools to participate," he said.

The Blue Whale Challenge is reportedly a suicide game in which the player is given certain tasks to complete for a period of 50 days and the final task leads to the player committing suicide. The player is also asked to share photos after finishing each challenge.

The sudden popularity of the lethal online game Blue Whale Challenge had forced the government to issue directions to the internet giants to remove the links of the dangerous game.

The Ministry of Electronics and IT had directed Google, Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, Microsoft and Yahoo to immediately remove the links of the Blue Whale Challenge.

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notice to the central government, Facebook, Google and Yahoo on a plea seeking direction to the internet majors to take down the links of the Blue Whale game.