The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a petition for an immediate judicial direction to the government to ban an online game ‘Blue Whale’ , which may be behind the deaths or attempted suicides of teenagers and young adults hooked to it.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India heard an urgent mention made by advocate C.R. Jaya Sukin, representing another lawyer N.S. Ponnaiah, who urged that the government should take immediate steps to spread awareness about the dangers of playing the game and clampdown its availability online.
Mr. Sukin argued before the Bench that the government, till now, has not taken sufficient steps even as the numbers of cases of self-inflicted injuries and suicides increase.
The petition said the game has spread its tentacles across the cities and enticing even schoolchildren to play.
The game “goads young people into killing themselves. Blue whale on-line game encourage people to take part in increasingly dangerous harmful dares that culminate in instructions to kill themselves,” the petition said.
The petitioner stated that parents are in panic. “Parents are doing their best to prevent their children from playing the game,” the petition said.
