Even as the Centre is making efforts to crack open the “secret world” of online game Blue Whale, it raised doubts in the Supreme Court if the unfortunate suicides of children has more to do with fear of failure in exams, peer pressure, depression and solitude.
Urging children to embrace the “beauty of life”, the Supreme Court on Monday disposed of a petition filed by advocate Sneha Kalita on the threat of Blue Whale with a word of advice to parents and teachers to “see that children do not get into traps set by these games”.
The Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud said “parental care, concern, love, affection, instilling a sense of optimism in children will keep them away from searching for these games”.
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Justice Chandrachud said it’s not just Blue Whale which was a threat to young minds, but the availability of other equally violent games online.
“The beauty of life is not to meet the beauty of death, but to keep death away,” Chief Justice Misra observed.
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‘Compulsorily avoided’
The court ordered chief secretaries of the States to make all schools across the country aware about the danger of Blue Whale and similar games. The court said there may be States where Blue Whale may not pose a problem, nevertheless, children should be made aware that these games should be “compulsorily avoided”.
The court said awareness campaigns for children should not focus solely on the games but primarily on the “dignity and beauty of life”.
Probe under way
During the hearing, Attorney General K.K. Venugopal submitted that a high-level committee, including senior computer scientists, was investigating the deaths. An interim report had been already prepared.
Additional Solicitor General P.S. Narasimha said Blue Whale was not an app or a website or even an url, which made it difficult to trace and erase.
“There are so many violent games and mostly these are one-on-one,” Justice Chandrachud observed.
Mr. Venugopal said the government was doing everything in its power to erase Blue Whale and had already contacted search engines like Google, which had also conveyed that it was “very difficult and done very secretly”. “Children need counselling... once they start on these games, it is difficult to stop... they may even be blackmailed. We are investigating,” Mr. Venugopal submitted.
The Bench asked the petitioner to forward any suggestions she had to the government’s expert panel.