Declaring the Blue Whale online game a threat to life, the Supreme Court on Friday directed public broadcaster Doordarshan to conceive a cautionary and educational programme about the dangers of the online game which goads players, mostly students, to commit suicide.
A Bench, led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, gave the public broadcaster a week’s time to prepare the programme and air it on prime time for an appropriate duration, possibly not less than 10 minutes.
“Suffice it to say that the Blue Whale game is dangerous to life. What endangers life has to be condemned and not allowed,” Chief Justice Misra observed.
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DD, the court said, would script the programme in consultation with the Ministry of Home Affairs, Women and Child Welfare Department, HRD Ministry and Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and Technology.
The court also directed the competent authority in the government to see to it that private channels also telecast the programme.
The order came on a petition filed by Supreme Court advocate Sneha Kalita, asking the court to frame guidelines for regulating and monitoring the virtual digital online games and to take immediate measures to ban/ block sites linked to the Blue Whale game or any other forms of violent and immoral games.
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The idea behind the programme is to make parents and children aware of the dangers of online games like Blue Whale. The message of the programme should be that children should not be trapped into the game.
“There are children who are lonely and frustrated... definitely visuals will have more impact,” Chief Justice Misra observed.
28 cases tracked
Additional Solicitor General P.S. Narasimha submitted that around 28 cases had been traced to have links with the Blue Whale game.
A probe was under way and a complete picture of the extent and means of how the game was spreading its tentacles would be obtained in the next three weeks.