The game involves self-harming, such as cutting an image of the whale on the arm.

The game involves self-harming, such as cutting an image of the whale on the arm.

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma08/05/2017 00:00
TW
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The "Blue Whale" game is an internet phenomenon aimed at children and young people that takes its name from the way that some whales commit mass suicide. It seems to have originated in Russia, where there have been arrests of organisers, but has spread via social networks. It involves participants performing ever more extreme tasks over a period of fifty days. The ultimate "challenge" is to commit suicide, the preferred method apparently being by jumping off a building.

The National Police are investigating what is believed to be the first case of this in the Balearics. A secondary school in Palma alerted the police when a girl was found to have cuts to one of her forearms.

The girl, her age has been given as 13 or 14, told police that she had followed the instructions of the game. A sinister aspect of this game is that it uses peer pressure from a social network group to get children to meet the challenges. Self-harming is one of these challenges.

The parents of the girl were surprised when they were told, although they are understood to have been aware that she had a knife under her bed. The girl was grounded and all internet access was withdrawn. She is now back at school and said to be in good health. She is getting counselling, while the prosecution service for minors wants to establish how she came to be involved with the game.