Man Who Created 'Blue Whale Suicide Game' Charged With Inciting 16 Schoolgirls To Kill Thems
[Russia] Philipp Budeikin, the 21 year old man behind a disturbing online game called "Blue Whale," was recently arrested and is being held on charges of inciting over a dozen schoolgirls to commit suicide.
Suspect Philipp Budeikin
Even after his arrest, numerous teenage girls have sent love letters to the suspect, who is being held in a Russian jail.
Police fear the Blue Whale game is spreading beyond Russia and possibly into Britain as well as China.
According to KnowYourMeme.com, the Blue Whale suicide game "is an online game in which participants are purportedly assigned a curator who provides various acts of self harm to be committed over the course of 50 days."
"On the final day, participants are urged to win the game by committing suicide. While over 100 teen suicides have reportedly been linked to the game, no direct evidence has been found," the website states.
Additional information (Source: KnowYourMeme.com):
Origin
On May 17th, 2016, the Russian news site RT reported that groups on the Russian social network VK were linked to “130 teen suicides in Russia” (shown below).
Spread
On November 16th, 2016, the Russian news site RBTH reported that a VK group administrator had been detained by police for urging children to commit suicide. On February 20th, 2017, a YouTuber uploaded a video titled “The guy plays Blue Whale jump from roof,” in which a Russian teenager pretends to jump off a roof (video since deleted).
On February 21st, the news site RadioFreeEurope published an article, reporting that the “Blue Whale” suicide game had become a “shadowy online phenomenon” across Russia and Central Asian countries. On February 27th, Snopes published an article, labeling the claim that the “Blue Whale” game was “responsible for more than 130 in Russia” as “unproven.”
Worried about more potential suicides happening, police in Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire (UK) have warned parents about the sinister Blue Whale game, urging them to monitor their childrens' social media accounts.
Psychologist Veronika Matyushina told The Daily Mail, "Most likely, those young girls who fell in love with Philip were not receiving enough love and attention from their parents, and this handsome young man from the Internet provided certain support for them and gave that attention they needed. This is where romantic feelings were born."
A senior official from the Investigative Committee of Russia, Anton Breido, said, "Budeikin very clearly knew what he had to do to get the result (he wanted)."
Anton Breido from the Investigative Committee of Russia
Breido further stated, "He started in 2013 and ever since he has polished his tactics and corrected his mistakes. Philipp and his aides at first attracted children into VK (social media) groups by using mega-scary videos.
"Their task was to attract as many children as possible, then figure out those who would be the most affected by psychological manipulation.
"Say, out of 20,000 people, they knew 'their' audience would be only 20 people.
"They gathered the children, then offered simple tasks which for some children were too boring or weird to complete.
"Those who stayed were given much stronger tasks like cutting their veins, to balance on a roof top, to kill an animal and post a video or pictures to prove it.
"Most children left at this stage.
"A small group that was left who obediently went through all the tasks, with teenagers being physiologically ready to follow whatever the administrators told them, no matter how strange or scary the tasks.
"They felt their position in the group was so precious that did literally everything to stay in.
"One of the troubles for us was that 15 children who committed suicide at administrator's orders were told to delete all correspondence in their social media accounts, which they all did."
The Blue Whale group's administrators referred to the children who participated as "biological waste," while Budeikin himself told police they were "happy to die" and he was "cleansing society."
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