Killer games in social networks. “Kill yourself - or we will kill your relatives”: teenage “death groups” migrated to Twitter and Instagram
This earlier parents they were worried that their child was disappearing somewhere on the street until late. And suddenly he contacted bad company? Now the situation has changed - a child surfing the Internet can cause anxiety. And it's not the notorious predilection for online games, but complete dependence on moderators. From now on, it is these unknown personalities who decide the fate of your child.
What parents need to know about dangerous groups, says KP in Ukraine.
"Whales and Butterflies"
The most widespread and dangerous groups today are the "death" communities. While one public is closed, three more immediately appear ... and so on ad infinitum. In their names, and it is important for parents to know, they use the words "whale", "butterflies". They were not chosen by chance - whales are washed ashore, committing suicide, and the life of a butterfly lasts only one day.
Each such community may have its own rules of the game, but basically it all comes down to one thing: teenagers receive quests that must be completed in a maximum of 50 days. The figure is also not accidental - this is a reference to the book "50 days before my suicide" by Stacy Kramer, in which the heroine must decide during this period whether she wants to live or die.
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The result of the game in such groups is to commit suicide.
About "groups of death" in Ukraine actively started talking at the end of last year, when in Mariupol, performing a quest, a 15-year-old girl jumped from the 13th floor. In the public in which she was a member, moderators gave their subscribers terrible tasks: take a picture of any thing in the room, and then cut their hands against the background of this object, or simply injure themselves. A personal item is needed so that the moderator is convinced that the person did not "pull out" a picture of cuts from the Internet. That group was closed a few days after the girl's death. But she's one of hundreds of them.
Task groups have not disappeared. Although it is not easy to find them - usually the search engine gives ordinary pages of "whales" where they post music or sad pictures. To get to the "suicidal" public, schoolchildren leave special posts on their pages with the hashtags "kit", "hochuvigra" and so on.
Basically, moderators try to score not very a large number of people for games (100-1000 people). The fewer subscribers, the more likely it is to go unnoticed by law enforcement. KP in Ukraine also managed to sign up for one of the small groups. The public consisted of a little more than 500 people - 33 of them are identified as Ukrainians. Many have fake pages, that is, false data - their real name is replaced with a nickname, instead of their pictures - stills from movies, musicians, etc. At random, we wrote to the first subscribers who came across on behalf of a teenager of 15 years old. She is subscribed to many groups with the “whales” emblem, although she admits that she did not receive the quest anywhere ... She did not have time because of the suicides.
“I subscribe, but I don’t play, and no one sends a task. But you’d better not take the quest,” the interlocutor advised. “It’s just that in the three groups that I was in, they banned me because someone died from suicide. But I still want to play, out of interest.”
She talked about the emergence of another game - "Run or Die." No less scary and dangerous ...
"Run or Die"
About the quest "Run or die" in Ukraine started talking a few weeks ago. Its essence is that a teenager must cross the road in front of a nearby car. Either you get through or you don't.
"KP" in Ukraine" has already reported: Kiev taxi drivers have begun to complain en masse about this "group of death". They say that cases have become more frequent when children "straight through" cross the road. In the capital police, however, this information is not confirmed, although they say that in some of the regions of the country similar case did happen.
It can be assumed that schoolchildren simply became careless about the rules of behavior on the road. But the appearance on social networks of a group called "Run or Die" is alarming. True, those that we found were empty (without subscribers and records). However, it is possible - the game is new, it is just beginning, and participants will soon appear in it.
In any case, there are enough messages among users that urge not to get involved in a new dangerous "game".
"Disappear for 24 hours"
At the end of January, the game "Disappear for 24 hours" was reported. This is such a test when children disappear for a whole day without saying a word to anyone. They return the next day as if nothing had happened. The first incidents with the disappearance of schoolchildren have already occurred in our country - in the Kyiv region. They write on the Web: two teenagers disappeared with a difference of three days - there was no connection with them, none of the friends knew where the fugitives might be. But the very next day they returned to their parents safe and sound. Residents of Belaya Tserkov say that one of these cases occurred in their city. True, the police of the Kyiv region deny that they did not have such a thing. At least none of the parents approached them with a request to find a child who disappeared due to a group on the social network.
When a child leaves home, police officers begin a full check: they find out what the child did that day, who he saw, where, with whom he corresponded on social networks, and so on. But we do not confirm the information that there were cases of missing children in the region because of such a group," KP in Ukraine was told in the press service of the police of the Kyiv region.
However, police officers from many areas are already aware of this danger and are ready to search for children who are passionate about social networks at any time.
OFFICIALLY
"Behind the groups are trained people"
The metropolitan police say that in Kyiv there have not yet been cases of death of children due to "death groups". But confirm - the problem really exists. Both children and teachers talk about it at preventive conversations in schools.
We monitor such groups, but since their main provider is not registered in Ukraine, we cannot influence them. We came to the conclusion that behind the groups are specially trained people who manipulate the personality of the child. They keep track of who wants to get into the group. During the conversation, they ask "correct questions" and try to check with whom the child communicates, what kind of relationship with loved ones. Naturally, they recruit those who are more closed - this is the target audience for them, - Larisa Zub, head of the juvenile prevention department of the Kyiv police department, told KP in Ukraine.
She gives an example of how quickly people "run" into such groups. Literally the other day at 8 am another "group of death" appeared, and by half past 11 am it consisted of more than 2 thousand participants.
Although there were no cases of death of schoolchildren in the capital due to similar groups, in total last year 9 teenagers took their own lives.
The police advise parents to communicate more with their children. And they set another point as an example - there are times when parents start "fake" pages and subscribe to the same groups that the child is a member of, or simply start corresponding with him under the guise of a new acquaintance. So at least you can understand what the student has in mind.
COMMENTARY PSYCHOLOGIST
"The way of self-expression and the need for recognition"
Psychologist Olga Babenko told KP in Ukraine why teenagers take risks and what parents should do about it.
Psychologists are aware of the dangerous trend of social media influence and are seriously concerned about the current fashion of teenagers to take risks. According to experts, in this way the child expresses himself, attracts the attention of parents and other adults who are significant in his life.
A teenager is a maximalist who sees black and white, not halftones. It is important for him to somehow prove himself, - says psychologist Olga Babenko. - It is especially important to him how he looks at him social group his peers. Flashmob satisfies all these needs. Here he can express himself, demonstrate his attitude to any issue, satisfy the need for recognition from peers who also participate in these groups. In addition, these movements do not require rigid social role- participated and dispersed.
But it's one thing if the flash mob is harmless. However, dependence on a group can be dangerous. This is where parents need to be careful.
A child who is fond of such “things” will definitely give himself away, the psychologist believes. - It should seem suspicious that he spends almost all his time on the Internet. A teenager can become silent, detached. It is absolutely impossible to scold, shout and punish for the fact that he suddenly disappeared for a day, or decided to spend the night in a supermarket, or slip in front of a speeding car. We need to talk to him and find out why he did it. And the best thing is to talk without waiting for any excesses. According to the psychologist, open and sincere conversations - the best prevention giving excellent results throughout the rest of your life.
GOOD TO KNOW
How to protect a teenager from someone else's influence?
Trusting relationship
For teenagers, methods of guardianship and control will no longer be suitable, since you have a formed personality in front of you. At the same time, it is not enough to be interested in how the child learns. You can ask the question "How was your day?" instead of the standard "How are you at school?" Be sure to ask "How are your friends?", "What good thing happened to you today?", "Do you need my help?" And then your child, without realizing it, will "merge" all the information, what he lives and is interested in. True, you need to be prepared for the fact that you will not recognize everything at once - communication will develop gradually. But when contact occurs, then it will be possible to talk about social networks, and about the dangers that they can carry, and about why your child is interested in this.
Take the kids time
It is not necessary to completely deprive children of social networks - this will cause protest, distrust and attempts to hide their lives from their parents. Make it so that they have little time to sit in front of a computer monitor. Enroll the child in the section, but only in the one where he wants, not you. Spend the weekend with the whole family - and not so that everyone minds their own business. General lessons and interests will help to become closer friend to friend.
Don't punish
If your child is already “inside” the flash mob movement, there is no need to slash, punish, prohibit and limit. Talk to him about it with full respect for his personality, try to understand. Do not understand - ask questions, only "without arrivals" and accusations.
IMPORTANT
How to figure out that your child is in the "group of death"
"Whales", "butterflies" are drawn on the child's hands. The same drawings or stickers can be displayed in notebooks, notebooks.
There are obvious signs of cuts or injuries on the body.
He gets up at 4 in the morning (it is at this time that the moderator gives the task). Complains about not getting enough sleep.
Becomes more closed, aggressive, does not want to talk about "personal" topics.
MEANWHILE
"24 challenge"
Do not retreat in popularity and the group "24 challenge" - translated as "challenge 24". This the quest will do extremals - you need to record a video about the night spent in "forbidden places" - the mall, restaurant, shop, metro. And don't get caught by the guards.
Such "challenges" appeared in the West more than a year ago, now they have also been brought to our country. There are already a couple of records with Ukrainians on the Internet: the guys brag about how they were able to walk through closed shopping malls, hardware stores and other places.
These records are watched by millions of people. If some after viewing the maximum put "like", then others may have an idea to recreate what they saw. Perhaps this will not lead to death, but a night in the police station, if caught, is guaranteed.
True, the bloggers themselves, who create crazy, at first glance, videos for their subscribers, believe that the "challenges" are only entertaining, in contrast to the "groups of death", where the main task- morally crush teenagers and manipulate them.
The founders of "death groups" are most often mentally unbalanced people who are well aware that small children die from their communities, and this most likely brings satisfaction to them. And the "challenges", where you need to spend 24 hours in a closed mall, are more harmless and are of an entertaining nature for the viewer in the first place. Everything needs to be filmed and uploaded to YouTube. True, such actions are most often performed by popular bloggers in order to amuse their viewers, and always with a call "not to repeat this." How do I do it, for example. I always write in the description that I don’t need to repeat what I saw, ”Odessa blogger Rodion Shchukin told KP in Ukraine, who recently became famous throughout the country thanks to a video sending his friend in a box by mail.
At the same time, the blogger adds: more teenagers have begun to appear, who are more pleased to look at what others are doing, and not to do something themselves.
They even play games less, watch more, as others do. Such a generation has gone,” the blogger added.
Was made public sample list tasks from games that encourage teenagers to commit suicide. Earlier, SuperOmsk published screenshots of the correspondence of the curator of such a game with a future victim, where one of the tasks for a teenager was indicated - to carve a blue whale on his right leg with a knife. Now an extended list of tasks has become known, which was published by Izvestia. We ask parents of teenagers to be vigilant and for information purposes we also publish the above list.
So, tasks are designed for 50 days, the last is suicide. The game begins with a teenager posting on his page on the social network a call for curators of "death groups" - this may be the status "I'm waiting for instructions. I'm in the game" or hashtag #bluekit. After that, the curator contacts the children, makes sure of the seriousness of their intentions and begins to send them assignments every day at the same time - at 4:20.
1. Cut out f57 on the hand with a blade.
2. Wake up at 4.20 and watch scary videos.
3. Cut along the veins of the hand (not deep). Only three cuts.
4. Draw a whale on a piece of paper.
5. If you are ready to become a whale, write “yes” on your leg with a blade. If not, then you do whatever you want with your hand 6. (many cuts and so on).
7. Task with a cipher, like a quest.
8. Scratch f40.
9. Write in the status #I am a whale.
10. Must overcome his fear.
11. Get up at 4.20 and go to the roof.
12. You need to scratch a whale on your hand or draw it.
13. Watch scary videos all day.
14. Listen to the music they send you.
15. Cut your lip.
16. Poke your hand with a needle.
17. Hurt yourself.
18. Go to the biggest roof and stand on the edge.
19. Climb onto the bridge.
20. Climb on the crane.
21. Check for trust.
22. We need to Skype with the whale.
23. Sit upside down on the edge of the roof.
24. Again tasks with a cipher.
25. Secret mission.
26. Meet a whale.
27. They tell you the date of death, and you have to put up with it.
28. At 4.20 go to the rails.
29. Do not communicate with anyone.
30. Take an oath that you are a whale.
Over the next 19 days, teenagers are given monotonous tasks - to make a new cut on their hands, watch certain videos and listen to certain music, as well as "talk to a whale." Among the tasks there are also intimate, aimed at further blackmailing a teenager. Also, the curators use the threat of killing the child's relatives to keep him in the game.
In Omsk, a case was recently opened on incitement to suicide, to which two 13-year-old girls were nearly subjected. The suicide was averted when the mother of one of the girls noticed a symbol scrawled on her hand, checked her daughter's correspondence and turned to the investigating authorities.
In Mariupol, a 15-year-old girl jumped from the 13th floor - according to friends, she was subscribed to the "death group" on the social network and carried out the tasks of the moderator, who ordered her to step from a height.
Journalists of the news agency "Vchasno" found out how social networks lure teenagers into deadly games.
In the social network "VKontakte" we easily found more than a thousand publics on suicidal topics. Open, which anyone can read, and closed. Not all of them are popular - some have only a few hundred subscribers, others - thousands and even tens of thousands. But they all write about loneliness, hopelessness, despair, the meaninglessness of life.
The favorite symbol of most of these publics is whales. They are present in titles, in pictures, in videos, in posts. Members of these groups also call themselves whales. Whales are not chosen randomly - these animals sometimes wash ashore, killing themselves.
“Do you know why whales come ashore? Out of desperation,” reports one group. “Oddly enough, when it hurts, it hurts,” another public echoes her.Many public sites contain the number 4:20 in the title - the time at which, according to statistics, people most often commit suicide. Some of the groups start communication exactly at 4:20 in the morning. It sounds incredible, but some experts advise parents to check if their children are sleeping at 4:20 in the morning. If a child is surfing the Internet at this time, this may be a sign that he has fallen under the influence of suicidal groups.
However, the groups do not contain frank calls for suicide. If you believe the information of Roskomnadzor, all publics that openly promote voluntary departure from life are blocked. Now, to “play” at death, you need to be contacted by “instructors” - teenagers post on their page a statement about their readiness to join the game and the corresponding hashtags. After that, the “curator” contacts the child and gives tasks.
death game technology
"I want to play. Give me a number. Give instructions. Find. Me. Where I am?" - such messages appear on the network almost every few minutes.
Journalists of the Vchasno news agency also posted a couple of such ads from fake accounts - a nineteen-year-old guy and a high school student. We were contacted within 10 minutes.
“Hi, I’m the one who will give you the number and tasks,” wrote a person from the account of a certain Ilya Kostlyavykh. "Are you sure you want to die?"
After our employee confirmed this, he received the first task - to carve the number F57 on his wrist. This was the name of one of the most popular "death groups", blocked after several children who were members of it committed suicide. The curator ordered the photo with a cut hand to be posted online.
“Well done, wait for the next instructor, he will write to you,” the “curator” said, having received a photo of the completed task. “My job is to check whether you are ready for anything for the sake of death.”
The second curator demanded that the journalist, hiding under the account of a 15-year-old girl, tell why she decided to die. In the end, he concluded:
“I think it’s about your classmates and the fact that you are the bottom, and this cannot be corrected.”
The “curator” ordered me to go to my mother and say: “I want to die because I don’t see the point in life.” The performance of the quest had to be recorded on video.
That's the kind of game I played last days before her death, a 15-year-old girl from Mariupol. At that time, she was going through a breakup with her boyfriend and, most likely, was in a state of depression - this is evidenced by the entries on her page on the social network.
“Quest completed,” the girl wrote on her page. "There's only one step left."
Mariupol resident posted on the network a picture taken from a height of 13 floors - this photo was also a condition of the quest. This is exactly what many suicidal children in Russia did - shortly before suicide, they photographed the place of their death and posted the picture on the Internet.
It was on December 8 and 9 that the "groups of death" announced a wave of suicides among teenagers. Muscovite Ekaterina Melikhova, who turns out to be psychological help teenagers:
“The 8th-9th is planned new wave suicide. And in fact, children are thrown off the roofs. We counted 130 (!) suicides of children that happened in Russia from November 2015 to April 2016 - almost all of them were members of the same groups on the Internet. New deaths announced there."
IN Lately Ukrainian teenagers also showed interest in the dangerous game.
Who and why pushes children to death?
The administrator of the "groups of death" and the creator of the ominous F57 hashtag, Philip Budeikin, was detained in St. Petersburg in early December. Publics in which he pushed children to death are blocked. The man admitted that thanks to his direct participation 17 children died during the year.
He created several dozen publics and "played" nightmarish games with children.
There are many more teenagers who have decided to die without the direct participation of the administrator. According to Russian media, the number of dead teenagers who wrote an ominous hashtag online before their death is about 130.
And, as we personally saw, Budeikin's arrest did not stop the wave of suicidal publics - thousands of children publish hashtags asking them to "play." And unknown "curators" get in touch with them and push them to death.
Now this wave has reached the Donbass - a 15-year-old girl in Mariupol died after the arrest of the St. Petersburg administrator. This means that the nightmarish games continue and death in the front-line city may not be the last.
Who is doing this and why - the answer to this question should be found by law enforcement officers. And at the same time take care of how to protect children from deadly games.
Moreover, it remains open question- why the social network "Vkontakte" does not close such groups?
“Adolescents do not understand that death is the end,” psychologist
“For teenagers, the idea of the finiteness of being is too complicated a structure, they do not have an understanding that death is the finale from which there is no turning back,” clinical psychologist and Gestalt therapist Kristina Fomina told the Vchasno news agency journalist. - Also at this age, death is often highly romanticized.
Remember the cultures of emo and goths, popular books and series about vampires, where already dead heroes are endowed with superpowers, and some otherworldly transcendental love is described. In addition, adolescents have not yet fully formed, the emotional-volitional sphere has not yet settled down, they react to what is happening faster than they have time to realize it.
Often there is also an accentuation of character, an accentuation of temperament, when certain traits are pronounced in children that have not yet been formed into a final character. All these components make them easily vulnerable - unhappy love, quarreled with mom, failed the exam - and this becomes the end of the world.
- How does the behavior of a teenager who has fallen under the influence of suicidal groups change? What should parents pay attention to?
In a suicidal state, people always give some call signs during external world. A teenager almost always commits suicide to get attention. A child in such a situation may become withdrawn, secretive, he may have new acquaintances or hobbies that he does not want to talk about. Or he may become quick-tempered, irritable, may talk about death, suicide. Make notes, drawings of this kind.
Only attention should be paid to a teenager not when he has already closed and cuts his veins, but every day.
What should parents do?
Members of the "death groups" on the social network page may have photos with whales - harbingers of death.
Some of the "death groups" begin communication at exactly 4:20 in the morning. Experts advise parents to check if their children are sleeping at 4:20 in the morning.
Check your child's wrist. The first task in the "groups of death" are incisions on the hands of F57, F59 (or similar), as well as a drawing of a whale.
Be interested in events in the child's life: does he have conflicts and communication problems with other children, is he on this moment the child is depressed. Talk more with your child about what is happening in his life.
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Since the publication of the article on "groups of death" in " Novaya Gazeta"A year has passed. The news about the ominous "blue whales" (by the name of one of the groups), taking the lives of hundreds of children, has become a real "network Chernobyl".
We now know that groups in which adolescents were encouraged to commit suicide through play are not a new weapon of cultists and terrorists, but a cynical adventure by young people like them that has gone too far. The police connect only the smallest part with the Blue Whale teenage suicides that have occurred in recent times. So, "passed"? Can you breathe out?
Alas, everything is not so simple. Discussions only fueled the interest of teenagers in games. Search engines were bombarded with requests like " Blue whale What game is this". After the demand came the offer - the games "resurrected" in new forms. Is this "renaissance" dangerous? What do "suicidal games" attract teenagers in general? How does their mechanism work and how can they be resisted?
Demand followed by offer - games "resurrected" in new forms
In April took place round table on dangerous network games, organized by the project of social adaptation "Noon". Psychologists, activists, specialists working with adolescents discussed the most pressing issues, and we have collected answers to the main questions.
Why is this phenomenon happening right now?
Games with death were always and everywhere. Even before the advent of the Internet, there were test games: stand on the rails in front of the train and jump off at the last moment, jump off the bridge into the water, hook on the trolleybus and drive to the next stop. These are courage tests. Children go for it to get an adrenaline rush and be known as daredevils.
"Blue Whale" − new form organizing such games. Many processes that used to be intimate have become public on the Internet. Video bloggers discuss relationships with their parents, quarrel, worry, and do stupid tricks right in front of the camera. Forms of self-expression that exist "in real life" migrated to the Web.
Many teenagers play Blue Whale for the same reason they cut their hands and climb abandoned construction sites. They are driven either by the desire to get adrenaline or curiosity.
Why do teenagers need it?
Games with death usually begin at the age of 12-14. At this age, a teenager is aware of himself as a separate person, wants to disconnect from his parents, challenge their authority and prove his adulthood.
The assertion of power over one's body is also an attribute of an adult. “I can put a naked photo on the Internet, I can smoke, I can destroy myself if I want, my body belongs to me; my life belongs to me. I am an adult: I do not watch Smeshariki, but draw whales. I have common topic for talking to older children.
Most teenagers don't plan to die in the game. They do not believe in their death at all. This is too incomprehensible and distant event for them. They think that the game will tell them something about this phenomenon, but will not kill them.
Most teenagers don't plan to die in the game. They don't believe in their own death.
There are those who want to "replay the game". They challenge her. "I will play by the rules and win." When it appears popular topic for conversation, there are also those who are against it. But here you can be both a hero and a fighter.
There is a powerful movement of "dolphins" or "whalers" who are looking for administrators and fighting them. These are also children, they also play like that. Sometimes they just join the group, dissuade the members.
There is a group of schoolchildren who are officially looking for money to organize such death groups. Although they did not find the money, the very fact of such thinking shows that for them it is just fun and fashion theme, which you can play and even earn on it. But it is not a fact that these funds would go exactly to the stated goal.
Who is at risk?
There is a small group of children who seek to pay off in these games heartache to draw attention to yourself.
“Among the parents of children caught in the game, indifference is very common,” says Svetlana Volokita, president of the Family Support Foundation “ More life”, which is engaged in saving children from similar situations. - We called the father and said that trouble happened to his child, attention is needed. The child has been playing this game for more than 40 days, that is, close to suicide. The parent replies that he has no time. I managed to connect my brother, who had to be pulled out of the army for this. I am convinced that if a child wanted to die and thought it over for a long time, he would have done it. If he is looking for a game, then he needs attention.
“The root of the problem is the situation in the family and the problems of socialization,” Svetlana Volokita believes. She cites such a case. The girl lives with her mother. Mom is in her second marriage and takes care of children from her stepfather.
The root of the problem is the situation in the family and the problems of socialization
When the girl began to wake up at 4:20, cut herself, lock herself in a room with closed curtains on the windows, her grandmother sounded the alarm. At the appeal of the NGO employees, the mother only dismissed, and the father said that "this child is not included in his plans."
The only thing that made the parents turn on was the threat of a trial, since for passive behavior V emergency situations There are also criminal penalties. But after leaving the game, the situation has not changed: the girl still has conflicts with her parents, she is dissatisfied with her life.
The Blue Whale aims to draw attention to itself. There was a gray teenager, "quiet", an inconspicuous schoolboy. But as soon as he gets into the game, he immediately becomes the one who needs to be saved. He is involved in a "cool", adult and dangerous business.
They conduct a dialogue with him at a new level, not from a top-down position. He is perceived as a person who is able to manage his life. “Death threats are the most effective and fairly simple way to make yourself known and really attract attention,” emphasizes Svetlana Volokita.
When were these games created?
Initially, on sites and resources like "2ch", "Upyachka", "Ward No. 6", "Overheard", the "net-stalking" movement was born (net - "network", stalking - "stalking"). Its essence is in the search for "treasures" on the Internet - hidden pages, oddities, deleted (supposedly) videos.
Even a simple scrolling through the news feed in search of the unusual is the beginning of netstalking. Anyone who finds something interesting immediately attracts attention and becomes popular for a while. The first "suicide game" appeared on one of these sites.
How they are arranged
A person receives an invitation or writes a message on the Web himself, leaving the desired hashtag, keyword. The curator is assigned to the participant. The game lasts 50 days, and for each day the player is sent one task. He has to get up at 04:20 and do something.
At first, the tasks are relatively harmless: go outside without a jacket, read a book for 2 hours, listen to certain music. Then they become more dangerous: run across the road at a red light, go to the parapet and look down. The last five are extremely dangerous and can lead to death, and in the final, the player is directly told: kill yourself.
How it works? How does the game set you up for suicide?
“The curators of Blue Whale or other similar games manipulate the player to weaken their sense of reality and the instinct of self-preservation,” says Alexander Minkin, lead game developer at the Noon project. - First, sleep deprivation and emotional impact are turned on. The player has to get up at 4 am for several days in a row. This unsettles him, he becomes suspicious, anxious, easier to suggest. In addition to lack of sleep, the player receives depressive emotions from texts and music. So the participant matures to a state where it is easy to manipulate him.
A teenager is offered to get used to the idea that death is near, you can touch it
The second stage is aimed at dulling the instincts. The teenager is offered to get used to the idea that death is near, it can be touched. He ran across the road, stood on the edge of the bridge - that means he defeated death a little. At this stage, there are threats from the curator: to kill relatives of a teenager, to lay out some "compromising evidence" if the player decides to "jump off".
Some of these mechanisms are familiar to psychologists, because it is very similar to the formation of a habit. The participant is drawn in, gets used to performing tasks over and over again, obeying the curator. The game mechanics are well suited to this task: it keeps the player's attention and state in "flow".
What does "flow state" mean? Alexander explains: “Let's take a game of tennis as an example. We picked up a racket for the first time and are learning to hit the ball against the wall. After a few sessions, we can already calculate the trajectory and impact force. As soon as the results are visible, we are up against a coach who adapts to our level. It's hard for us, but we manage, and so on until the tennis championship.
We are constantly interested - we are "in the flow". But if the coach leaves us to practice against the wall for too long, we get bored. And vice versa, if he plays at full strength, we experience stress due to constant failures.
In the Blue Whale game, boring tasks alternate with interesting ones. The first - intrigue, arouse curiosity. Then a few boring tasks make you languish in anticipation. Then again there are interesting ones, but the complexity is growing. Having overcome them, the players feel their victory.
If you increase the difficulty with each stage, it will be impossible to reach the end. And due to the intermediate points, the player remains in the "stream".
The weakness of the game is manifested where the curator has to threaten the participant. This suggests that the mechanics do not always cope with keeping a person in the game. Where interest fails to hold, fear comes into play. The participant cannot post a photo on the Web to tell what exactly is happening to him. And it works: someone stays because of the fear of losing their relatives, someone because of the prospect of being disgraced.”
Who benefits?
For the most part, people do not know how the game works, see no reason to play it, perceive all groups of death as a complex threat and easily draw the image of an enemy behind them. It's like there's a single villain running all these groups and games.
But there is no evidence of a connection between suicides and games, there is no visual picture, there is a lot of speculation around how it works. And there are no demands from any terrorist organization, as well as statements that someone assumes responsibility for these actions.
The death rate of adolescents as a result of such games is not so significant as to talk about the terrorist threat or the development of weapons. To support all curators and all groups is huge budgets with minimal results. Such performance does not suit any intelligence service.
These people have no secrets or power.
In addition, the information that the curator uses is always obtained from open sources in the most primitive way. These people have no secrets or power. These are not adult hackers, but active peers of the participants. Perhaps some of them have a personal grudge against their players.
Now it is impossible to say who exactly created the first game. Perhaps a psychologist, perhaps a teenager. Maybe it's someone graduate work. The format and versions of this game are constantly changing, and now it is organized by different young people.
As if we were walking from yard to yard and found the games that children play there: knives, hopscotch, rubber band, ball. It seems that everyone is similar, but the author is unknown and the rules are different.
And the process of the game, the mechanics and the image of the participants suggest that both the administrators and the participants are teenagers. This is especially noticeable by the fact that no one takes such a game seriously until the last moment. After all, a teenager does not believe in his own mortality.
It may seem to some that the "Blue Whale" is a unique and very complex phenomenon. This is wrong
It may seem to some that the "Blue Whale" is a unique and very complex phenomenon. This is wrong. Children play a lot of games - this is their norm Everyday life. And the number of games created by children is huge, especially on the Internet.
The "Blue Whale" was born at the junction of several phenomena - a craving for extreme sports, a search for new sensations, a desire to gain respect from peers and prove one's adulthood. Teenagers come into the game to get attention, get adrenaline, beat the opponent and pay off the heartache. The administrator and the participant come to the game in different ways, but already in the process they treat it the same way, they do not fully believe that the game will end in death, and strive to beat the opponent.
How to deal with it?
1. Don't be afraid
Stop talking breathlessly about the game. So we just add popularity to this topic. Our task is to bring this concept out of fashion.
2. Form values
It is hard for teenagers to realize what is really important and expensive in life. It is necessary to talk with children about family, work, friendship, to show by example what is really valuable. Read together classic literature, discuss films and storylines computer games. For example, the Noon project holds games for children from orphanages in which they can live through this or that situation and make a value choice.
3. Be vigilant
The child himself will not ask for help if he is already on the path of suicide. It's important to watch him. If he started playing, he has about 40 days. Changes in behavior are clearly visible: isolation, depression, sleep disturbances, cuts and injuries appear.
4. Be there
It is important to know what is happening with the child, with his environment, what worries him, what he feels, whether he is often lonely. And also teach him to call an adult for help in extreme situations.
5. Reassure
If a child has embarked on the path of suicide, declared this, he needs to be explained that there are people who will be upset because of his death. Does he want it? The answer may follow: "I have no friends, they do not care, no one needs me." Then we can say that even strangers to him will be upset, will empathize.
6. Discuss the topic of suicide
A teenager may perceive suicide in a romantic way, as a flashy gesture, a way to "leave beautifully." It is important to give him an alternative view - what pain and suffering this step brings to people, how distorted his life looks in the eyes of a suicide.
There are films and social videos that bring up these topics. Whatever you watch, be sure to discuss it with your child - it is important to find out about his impressions, thoughts and feelings about what he saw.
7. Interrupt the "flow"
As with other games on the Internet, for example, various farms, we get carried away and for some time we can “fall out” of reality. But it is worth interrupting for a week - and we no longer remember them.
If you are afraid that your child is already playing a dangerous game, isolate him from communications, take him to the country house for a week, let him sleep. At a minimum, he will stop taking the threats of the curator as real, and at the maximum, he will stop taking the game seriously. But remember it's not his decision internal problems, but only interrupting the "flow" state.
8. Give a replacement
Breaking contact is not enough to pull you out of the flow. Next, it is important to find something that the child likes, and give him the opportunity to do it. Support his hobby, some interesting activity for him.
If you push and punish, it will backfire. The child will find another way to commit suicide or return to the game - through friends, other people's accounts.
9. Consult a psychologist
There are psychological centers that work with "whales", you can find them on the Internet.
The story of the Blue Whale teaches us that children need attention. They are not just an object of education, they are living people with their own emotions, desires and aspirations. A “fashionable”, exciting topic shifts the focus of the problem: many are captivated by the idea of a suicide epidemic, but they are not so interested in talking about real problems children - loneliness, failures in love, inattention or violence from parents.
What is Project Noon
The project of social adaptation of children from orphanages "Noon" helps children from orphanages. Project volunteers develop and conduct games in which children live in various situations and solve problems, learning to act independently, take initiative, build boundaries, take into account the interests and needs of other people, and take responsibility for their decisions.
The program has been running for six years. Now its participants are working not only in orphanages, but also in schools and institutions additional education in 23 regions Russian Federation- from Moscow to Vladivostok.
Website: thenoon.ru
/ site illustration
Kazakhstan, according to WHO, ranks second in the world in terms of the number of suicides among young people.
Intelligence agencies regularly block suicidal groups, but their popularity is only growing. Recently, children have become addicted to the game of death. And if earlier the media blamed such cases, saying that journalists often talk about suicides, which stir up interest, then they started talking about the Blue Whale recently, and meanwhile the number of participants in this group has reached more than 16 thousand people, some of whom are Kazakhstani schoolchildren. The editors of the site decided to figure out what these deadly groups are, how to protect teenagers from them, and most importantly, how to find out by the first signs whether a child is suicidal in order to help him in time.
Rules of the game
The rules are quite simple - the participant is assigned a curator who sends tasks. 50 days - 50 tasks, the last of which is suicide.
50 days - 50 tasks / Photo from vk-smi.ru
The other day, a 15-year-old pupil of a boarding school in Aktau cut his veins on his left hand with a sharpener blade. Thus, the teenager completed the second task, which was sent to him by one of the curators of the death game "Blue Whale".
The first one was the easiest - to draw a dolphin on the hand, take a photo and send it to the site. According to the teenager, a friend told him about this game.
“According to the rules, it was necessary to post a picture with certain hashtags on the VKontakte social network. I did this together with my friend. Curators find players using hashtags and give them tasks. I waited for two days, but no one wrote to me. Then I found out that a friend entered the game and gave a link to the curator. Auth.).
According to the teenager, he knew about the consequences of the deadly game. However, he wanted to outwit the curator and was not going to complete the last task. As Kirill said, he was very curious why this game is so interesting for many teenagers and what kind of tasks there are.
However, according to the Department of Education of the Mangistau region, they learned about the shocking act of a teenager from classmates who told everything to the school nurse, and she told the management.
"Fortunately, the cuts are not deep, they do not pose any danger. The boy himself says that he learned about this game from a friend, and he wondered what tasks they would give. We talked with the children, but now information about the game is spreading like a viral advertisement. People are interested in what it is and why they are talking about it. Psychologists are currently working with the teenager," said Almazhai Rainberdiyeva, head of the department. educational work Department of Education in Mangystau region.
"Mom, dad, I love you!"
Relatives of recently deceased teenagers link the deaths of children with a deadly game. On the night of February 6, 19-year-old Karaganda Galina Sibiryakova passed away. The phone of the deceased has the hashtags of the same game.
"I suspect that my niece passed away because of the deadly Blue Whale game. This scary game Also known as "Quiet House". The moderator gives tasks that the teenager must complete. For example, cut a whale drawing on your hand with a blade. And the last task is deadly," said the girl's uncle Marat.
However, the Department of Internal Affairs of the Karaganda region has not yet connected this case with a deadly game. The pre-trial investigation is carried out under the article "Incitement to suicide."
It is also believed that a teenager who crashed in Temirtau could also play a deadly game. A seventh-grader fell from the roof of a high-rise building, a message to his relatives in the snow: "Mom, dad, I love you."
Message in the snow / Photo site
"It seems to me that he was forced or pushed off the roof, he was a responsible boy, he promised to be at home at four o'clock, and the tragedy happened at about seven o'clock in the evening," said the aunt of the deceased Nurayat Smailova.
Law enforcement agencies are asked not to sow panic and not to associate all cases of suicide with a deadly game. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan noted that last year nine criminal cases were investigated on the facts of driving minors to suicide. However, no information about the impact on their behavior social networks not received. However, the organizers of the so-called death groups face criminal liability for incitement to suicide.
"Currently, the Internet is being monitored to identify groups with ideas of suicide and other illegal orientation to block access. In order to prevent child suicide, we urge parents to strengthen control over the virtual life of their children, as well as report all such facts to the police, on which appropriate measures will be taken immediately," the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan concluded.
Volunteers also joined the blocking of dangerous groups. Well-known activist Islam Ugushev on his Facebook page that they managed to close 136 so-called death groups in two weeks.
"We have been dealing with these groups on our own initiative for two weeks already, and there is nothing complicated in actions. We find these groups in social networks, no matter what, say, VKontakte. We copy the link to the group, contact the administration, write to them that malicious groups have been found that spread very dangerous games for children, we throw off links. Network administrations react, close these groups. And I advise you to do the same. No need to panic, no need to post every time and talk about how terrible it is. Yes, it's terrible, it's dangerous, but there's no need to sow panic," Islam Ugushev addresses the people of Kazakhstan.
Cleaning society from bio-garbage
Dangerous group administrator Philip Budeikin, known on social media as Philip Lis, was arrested in Russia in November last year. Two days before his arrest, the suspect admitted in an interview with reporters that he really encouraged teenagers to commit suicide. According to him, he cleaned society from bio-garbage and "helped" 17 schoolchildren die.
Philip Budeikin / Photo from livekuban.ru
"There are people, but there are bio-garbage. These are those who are of no value to society and bring or will only bring harm to society. I cleansed our society of such people. It started in 2013. Then I created "F57". "F - Philip, my name. 57 - the last digits of my then number. I thought about the idea for five years. You could say I was preparing. I thought over the concept of the project, specific levels and stages. It was necessary to separate the normal from the bio-garbage," said Philip Budeikin.
According to the administrator of the death groups, the first "client" was 16-year-old Rina Palenkova, who committed suicide on November 23, 2015.
"The game begins. You need to complete tasks, talk about yourself, communicate. During this communication, it becomes clear who is who. Then I go to Skype with the person, put him into a trance and learn some things from his life, after which I make a decision. At some point, you need to push the teenager to ensure that he does not sleep at night. the psyche becomes more accessible to influence. When you start spinning in this topic, you are surprised at how many people are sectarians. I thought there would be a maximum of five people. There was another guy, a technical student. From a poor single-parent family, his mother beat him, and he himself free time killed stray dogs. It was better for everyone and for him in the first place," Lis said.
Now Budeikin is in a pre-trial detention center / Photo from starlife.kg
Now 21-year-old Budeikin is in a pre-trial detention center in St. Petersburg. He is accused of driving 15 people to suicide. But despite the fact that Lis was arrested, his death groups still live, moreover, they organized a virtual movement - "Freedom for the Fox" there. Budeikin himself, in an interview with reporters, said that he was not afraid of prison, as he believed that he would be able to avoid punishment.
Crazy or "black PR"?
Now Budeikin is being tested for sanity. It is known about the administrator of the death groups himself that he grew up in incomplete family: mother, grandmother and two brothers. Family relationships were tense. His relatives and the Fox himself were considered rather strange. For the past couple of years, Philip has been interested in information technology and attended trainings in psychology.
By the way, some examinations have already shown that Budeikin is quite adequate. Some experts believe that with the help of his groups, he promoted himself as a musician and sound engineer. The suicide videos published in closed groups were nothing more than just dramatizations.
Whether Budeikin really communicated with teenagers who later committed suicide, or is this another PR move, the investigation will figure it out. But the fact remains: after the hype around the death groups, the number of participants increased by several thousand people.
In Kazakhstan, it would not be to blame
Exactly. Experts believe that if the administrators of the deadly groups were found in our country, they would not be in danger. The law does not provide for such a thing. There is article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan - "Incitement to suicide":
1. Bringing a person to suicide or attempted suicide by means of threats, abuse or systematic humiliation of the human dignity of the victim - shall be punishable by restraint of liberty for a term of up to three years, or by imprisonment for the same term.
2. The same act committed against a person who was financially or otherwise dependent on the perpetrator, - shall be punishable by restraint of liberty for a term of up to five years, or by deprivation of liberty for the same term.
3. The acts provided for by paragraphs 1 or 2 of this article, if committed against a minor, are punishable by deprivation of liberty for a term of three to seven years.
The article prescribes a method of incitement to suicide, which limits law enforcement. From the point of view of the legislator, it is possible to bring a person to suicide only limited number ways: "through threats, ill-treatment or systematic humiliation of the human dignity of the victim." However, in this case the article is not applicable.
"It does not contain the norm" inducement to suicide. "The article prescribes a method of inducing suicide, which limits law enforcement. From the point of view of the legislator, it is possible to bring a person to suicide only in a limited number of ways:" through threats, cruel treatment or systematic humiliation of the victim's human dignity. but one will have to wait for a precedent, and one that will reliably confirm the connection of an already occurred suicide with "groups of death". Most often, the reformation of consciousness occurs on the basis of the suggestion of new attitudes. hypnotic techniques and a group dynamics technician. A person does not feel threatened, but becomes a victim of deception and manipulation, which forces him to make a prescribed choice and respond positively to everything that happens to him. But the concept psychological abuse"It is also absent in our legislation," explains the director of the Association of Religious Research Centers, forensic expert Yulia Denisenko.
They could have been saved
Psychologists are sure: there could not have been deaths if the children had been helped in time. The persistent opinion that if a person threatens to give up his life, then he will not do it, is a myth. Can do! Experts advise at the first signs of similar changes - isolation, frequent change moods, depression, aggressiveness, risky behavior, changes in appetite, sleep patterns and school performance - take the child to a psychologist or call the national helpline 150 and not let the situation take its course.
"How many parents allow you to spend with a child psychological work? I personally saw how my mother, with an unwavering hand, signed a refusal from psychological services, being warned that her daughter was at risk in all respects ( appearance, passes, smokes, test scores go off scale, repeatedly voiced suicidal thoughts)," says psychologist Natalya Imtosimi.
Meanwhile, experts explain: in the current situation in schools, psychologists are physically unable to identify potentially problematic children. It takes a specialist about 6 hours to talk with one student and process his data. More than 1,500 children study at the school.
Psychologists do not have time to work with all children / Photo from kazradio.kaztrk.kz
“I often see in the comments to such publications: “Where did psychologists look at school?” But those who are outraged do not even realize that the workload of psychologists often exceeds all conceivable norms. In schools with more than 650 children, there should already be two psychologists, and in college (the most risky age) - three! educational institutions adhere to these standards, and especially private ones, where individual employers save on everything?" - asks Natalya Imtosimi.
The international organization UNICEF conducted a study in Kazakhstan: how suicide prevention works in the country and which of the regions is the most depressive. The most prosperous situation is in the Kyzylorda region, the leader of the unpleasant rating was the East Kazakhstan region. Experts compared these areas and identified preliminary causes.
"In the Kyzylorda region, the suicide prevention system is very well built and all structures work together. School psychologists quickly diagnose and refer children at risk to specialized medical institutions. And most importantly, the whole process is controlled by the akimat. And in the East Kazakhstan region, a mismatch between the structures was revealed. This is one of the reasons high level suicide, that is, even if school psychologist diagnosed a critical situation, psychiatrists refuse to deal with this, and this situation is not monitored by the authorities in any way, "explains Svetlana Bogatyryova, project director of the Women's leadership fund public foundation.
"We started working on the idea of the project in response to a social demand. There is an information vacuum regarding this problem - search queries on the Internet give out mostly statistics or descriptions of tragic cases. There are no resources, high-quality literature, publications that would explain what is happening and what to do with it for an ordinary family. The state has developed comprehensive program on suicide prevention, its pilot component was tested in the Kyzylorda region. However, after analyzing the program together with expert psychologists, we came to the conclusion that the component for working with parents is not implemented enough, it needs to be supplemented. This is how the idea for the project was born. It has fully developed as a result joint work with journalists as part of the media and social innovation laboratory organized by Internews last June,” says Svetlana Bogatyreva, project manager.
Psychologists note that the test, like any diagnosis, is not one hundred percent accurate. It's more of a reason to talk to your child. However, the test may prompt the parent to seek medical attention.
In two years, almost 7,000 families have been tested / Photo from ichef.bbci.co.uk
In two years, 6856 families were tested. However, in the last two weeks the number of applications has increased markedly. Experts attribute this to the promotion of the topic of suicidal groups. Moreover, psychologists note: if earlier only depressed children fell into such groups, now it is more like a youth movement.
“I began to analyze these groups since May last year, when active publications began in the Russian press. Now I noticed such a trend in their development. If at first they were exclusively “interest groups”, that is, really depressed children joined there, now it already looks like a sub-culture, many join out of curiosity in order to be in the general trend. to put pressure, not to blame and not to aggravate the situation," advises Svetlana Bogatyryova.
There is no recipe for how to protect your child from suicide, but psychologists advise parents to talk with their children more often. Experts also call it an erroneous opinion that children who do not attend school are more likely to commit suicide. various mugs and who have a lot of free time.
“The employment and free time of the child have nothing to do with it. The way the child was brought up from 0 to 7 years old has a relationship with the tendency to suicide. If there were violations in the formation of attachment between the child and the parent, then it doesn’t matter at all which social level, what income, what is the microclimate in the family now. Everything from 0 to 7 is sown, will bear fruit in adolescence", - says the psychologist Marina Pashkovskaya.
Psychologists advise parents to visit specialists with their children periodically. For prevention.
Psychologists advise talking to children more often / Photo from otravleniya-yadi.ru
"Teenage children are like a hot wire. They are generally unstable. And different ways signal that they want attention and immediately reject this attention. Parents of teenagers have the hardest time. Which children should you pay attention to? For everyone! Do not divide: here he behaved quietly or he behaved loudly, then you need to pay attention, then you don’t need to. You need to look at the child’s environment, what he does, be interested in what he likes, what he likes. It is useful to take teenagers to specialists, even if they do not submit any warning signs. It is desirable that parents take courses: what is age-related psychology what is happening, how it is happening," says psychologist Marina Pashkovskaya.
