Have you ever heard of the blue whale challenge before? If not, this is more than the average little games you’d play with your friends or as a joke you’d pass along to one another. This challenge that has piqued mostly the interest of teens and linked to numerous death across the globe is proven to be more sinister than the eye meets and the origin of it is truly disturbing. The game itself is not what it truly seems to be.

Although the game was dated to have started way back in 2016, the creator of the blue whale challenge, who goes by the name of Philipp Budeikin [21 year old former psychology university student, expelled] claimed to have made the game back in 2013 as an excuse to get rid of the worst of humanity. In another sense, Philipp remarked that he pushed teens to commit suicide of those who are not worthy to him, in order to cleanse society.

What’s disgusting about him is that he claimed himself innocent for the statement of “only having fun,” when he had already pushed 16 teenage girls to commit suicide against their will. He had also said that he sometimes felt that what he was doing was wrong, but in the end he convinced himself that it was the right thing to do. 

The challenge itself incites and encourages the act of self-harm and ultimately committing suicide as the end game within the span of 50 days with 50 tasks to do, each tasks given grows sinister by the day.

How the game found its origin and spread across the globe started with a Russian girl named Rina Palenkova who was wrapped up in a black scarf that covered her mouth and nose, blood seemingly visible. She was standing outside, took a selfie while holding the middle finger, captioning her photo “Nya bye.” She then took her own life the next day and her death was talked among chat rooms hosted by VKontakte [Russia’s largest social network]. Within the chat, heavy topics were discussed along with scary stories passed, but Rina’s reason for suicide was a mystery. No one knew the truth behind it.

With the arrest of Philipp Budeikin on May 10, 2017; sentenced to ONLY three years in prison, pleaded guilty. Though the mastermind of the blue whale challenge has been arrested, the platform of the game stills continue. Similar cases with the blue whale challenge was alleged throughout Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Italy, Israel, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia as incidents that continues to become a widespread and a mystery, linking it to the blue whale challenge.