“Kill yourself - or we will kill your loved ones”: teenage “death groups” migrated to Twitter and Instagram

For several days, the hashtag #YavGame has been at the top of Twitter - under it, bloggers publish screenshots of correspondence with the curators of the suicidal flash mob “ Blue whale”, in which they make fun of tasks for moving to the next level. The threats of the curators, designed to intimidate teenagers, look quite ridiculous.

In early February, so-called suicide groups, which were discussed last spring, became more active on social networks. Participants in the “Blue Whale” flash mob must join certain VKontakte groups and leave the hashtags #IWantVIGRU, #Whales and others on their wall. Allegedly, after this, the so-called curator writes in personal messages and begins to give tasks - in twitter Screenshots of correspondence with a girl who allegedly took part in the flash mob are being circulated.

After a man carves the outline of a whale on his hand, he supposedly must not sleep for 50 days, then set an alarm clock and jump out of the window.

In response to this, bloggers started their game: they register fake pages on VKontakte, join a flash mob and provide fake information about themselves, and then ridicule the so-called curators to the fullest. Screenshots of Twitter conversations are posted under the hashtag #I'm in the game, which, in theory, was originally intended for real flash mob participants.


Judging by the screenshots, the so-called curators are not distinguished by intellectual abilities, and the threats with which they are trying to intimidate participants in a suicidal flash mob look quite funny.


Some bloggers do not correspond with curators, but laugh at the very idea of ​​a flash mob, cut out paper whales and joke that they would not wake up at 4:20 for anything in the world..

In November investigative committee detained the administrator of the “death groups” Philip Budeikin and formally charged him under the article “Incitement to suicide.” Investigators found that 15 minors in groups committed suicide and five more did not have time to do so.

Before his arrest, Philip gave an interview in which he admitted that he pushed teenagers to commit suicide and stated that.

And at the end of the year, bloggers drew attention to instructions for parents from the organization “Saving Children from Cybercrimes,” which indicated supposed signs that a child is in danger under the influence of social networks: .

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Teenagers were persuaded to take dangerous actions and were threatened with reprisals against their families

Cutting your hands, throwing yourself under a car or inhaling gas - the popularity of death games among teenagers is growing in Ukraine.

Schoolchildren receive assignments through groups on social networks called “Blue Whale”. Administrators of these groups encourage teenagers to commit suicide. So, over the weekend, Kiev police saved a schoolgirl from suicide who wanted to jump from the 16th floor.

Meanwhile, they searched for Kherson schoolgirl Katya for three days and found her with friends, where she was hiding from the Blue Whale.

“We quickly opened the network - then the youngest daughter said that Katya had entered the game and would be killed. Then it turned out that she was being followed,” said the schoolgirl’s mother Victoria Perevoznyuk.

“They were found in one of the private houses of Kherson, they were their friends. They went there to spend the night so that strangers would not come to their place of residence,” explained Tatyana Pshon, head of the juvenile prevention department of the National Police department in the Kherson region.

Katya admitted that she joined the Blue Whale group on one of the social networks. She was given a task, but the girl refused to complete it.

“The first task was for me to carve a blue whale on my hand with a blade. I decided not to make contact. They wrote to me that I had not completed the task. Threats began,” said the schoolgirl.

Oksana from Ivano-Frankivsk was also a member of the Blue Whale group.

“I received an assignment to write a letter. I didn’t have time to do it. Some time passed, and my page was blocked,” Oksana said.

The local police said that this is not the only case in Ivano-Frankivsk.

“We received a call from the hospital that they had a girl with the inscription “Blue Whale” on her hand,” said Alla Boychuk, head of the National Police sector of the Ivano-Frankivsk region.

In addition, in Uzhgorod, a driver witnessed a group suicide attempt by schoolchildren.

“I was driving at a green light, and I noticed four schoolchildren who, with their eyes closed, were holding hands - and then, out of the blue, they crossed my path. It seemed like they were three guys and one girl - she gave the command. They were about 12-13 years old,” said Uzhgorod resident Alexander Mariash.

According to the group's rules, teenagers must complete a task and film it. It is sent to administrators via social networks. The last task in all cases ends in death.

“They select a potential victim, work with him professionally and lead him to suicide,” explained the head of the cyber police in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, Ivan Kanyus.

Cyber ​​police have established that there are already several groups in Ukraine, they are registered under different names. There are more than 200 users in the groups. There are already confirmed cases of teenage suicide that are associated precisely with the activities of such groups. It is reported that administrators of such groups sell deadly videos through special websites.

“As the information shows, this is also making money, distributing some video materials through the Darknet (a private network whose connections are established only between trusted peers using non-standard protocols and ports - Ed.),” said Alexander Palamarchuk, deputy head of the cyber police department.

Psychologists advise parents to use any excuse to distract the student from social networks, for example, talk to children, find a hobby, or send the child to a sports section.

However, the wide resonance of shocking stories also has a downside.

“Those who didn’t know about it know. Those who didn’t know the names of the groups now know. Those who didn’t know where to look know where to look. We need to approach from a different position - we need to think that we can do everything.” , - explained the side effect of disseminating information about such groups, child psychotherapist Yulia Larina.

Thus, in one of the Kyiv schools they conduct lessons where they talk about how children are controlled through social networks.

“Death groups are a form of manipulation, because they have all the signs of manipulation. The first is a minimum of information. The second is a minimum of time for making decisions. The third is the person who manipulates says that he is ready to help,” said the social teacher Natalya Balakhtar.

Find the administrators deadly groups The cyber police failed. All that law enforcement can do now is to block dangerous communities on social networks.

The correspondence with the curator of the game called Blue Whale, who knew the past of this girl, was not accidental. I'm in VK I'm in VK https://vk.com/id393078775 The composition "Fall of the Solar King" belongs to the performer Twin Musicom. License: Creative Commons Attribution (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...). Performer: http://www.twinmusicom.org/ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Have you heard about the new “trend” of youth? Children "buy" their death! By purchasing the application, they are assigned a person who monitors the completion of tasks; the last stage of the game is suicide. WHAT YOU SHOULD PAY ATTENTION TO: 1. A teenager does not get enough sleep, even if he goes to bed early - make sure he sleeps in the early morning hours. 2. Draws whales, butterflies, unicorns. 3. Consists of groups containing the following in the name: “Whales are swimming up”, “Wake me up at 4.20”, f57, f58, “Tikhiidom”, “Rina”, “Nyapoka”, “Sea of ​​Whale”, “50 days before my ..." hashtags: whale house, milky way, 150 stars, ff33, d28, I want a game. 4. Closed access to VKontakte detailed information, in correspondence with friends (on my personal wall) there are phrases “wake me up at 4.20”, “I’m in the game”. And it’s absolutely scary if numbers appear on the wall, starting from 50 and less. 5. Corresponds on Viber (and other instant messengers) with strangers who give strange orders. SUSPICIOUS HASH tags: #f53 #f57 #f58 #d28 #morekitov #quiet home #I want a vigra #milky way Go through the hashtags and your hair will stand on end. #Quiet House #House of Kits #morekitov #F57 #Waiting for instructions #YavGame #anti-whale #whaler #anti-suicide #mirkitov #f58 #whales are crying #dreams are material #Milky Way __________________________________________________________ THIS IS ALL A PLAY AND A GAME! _________________________________________________________ blue whale, blue whale game, blue, whale, quiet house, quiet, house, sea of ​​whales, game, blue whale the whole truth, the whole truth, blue whale suicide, blue whale VK, #bluekit, #morekitov, #quiethome, schoolchildren suicides, schoolboy suicide, suicide, schoolboy, death groups, death groups VKontakte, VKontakte, blue whale play, blue whale quiet home, quiet home game, blue whale all tasks, blue whale group, blue whale tasks, blue whale death group, wake up me at 4 20, blue whale game, suicides, schoolchildren, vitalina, carrillo, blue whale, suicide, death, my, terrible, story, terrible story, my terrible story, Sobolev, pleasant Ildar, f57, list of tasks, why do children play in the blue whale, YouTuber, trends, list of tasks blue whale, my story blue whale, communication with the curator, communicating with the curator, deadly game, life YouTube, Kolya hater, social media, KTRK, ala-too, blue whale 50 days, blue whale 4:20, ff33

I found the game in a couple of hours. Yes, groups that offer a game where the outcome is death are covered up. Public pages with keywords disappear. Finding a “game” has become more difficult. But its creators have followers. Every day new closed groups of the blue whale game appear. Submit your application. And someone writes to you.
On the other side of the screen is some illiterate youngster. An adult would understand that such a bruise cannot appear in 2 minutes. Another “curator” showed up. These amoebas are multiplying. I asked him to scratch f58 on his hand with a blade. I mix acrylic paints, draw, and add realism in Photoshop.
On March 30, a round table will be held on the territory of the Kuzbass Fair exhibition company dedicated to a pressing social issue - counteracting the emerging dangerous online communities blue whale game - the so-called “death groups”.
Mysterious social media groups that encourage teenagers to commit suicide began appearing in 2015. This phenomenon was called “death groups.”
In South Ossetian society, one can increasingly hear talk about the so-called “suicide groups”, popular on various social networks. They, as a rule, are aimed at the still fragile teenage psyche.


Blue whale survival game

An eighth-grade student at one of the district’s schools was completing assignments from a group from social networks called the blue whale game, the press service of the Zhambyl region prosecutor’s office reported.
Alice comes up with tasks for them in order to give them another game in return for the “whale”. Alice looks about 15 years old. She writes kilometers of letters of support for everyone. But Alice cannot solve their problems. Me too. In a private conversation, I asked a psychologist to help her. So that the girl doesn’t inadvertently make things worse. The psychologist got rid of me with a couple of phrases. The man frankly didn't care. I wrote in a chat to the children’s support service, where anyone who wants to play “Blue Whale” is asked to contact. “There are no consultants now, call the number blah blah blah blah,” was displayed on the screen. I wrote a letter. Day passed. No one answered. But they will report that “such a service has been created and is working.”
In Kazakhstan they continue to fight the Blue Whale and other “death groups” in VK. According to the Kazakh Ministry of Internal Affairs, in the first month and a half of 2017, more than a hundred thematic groups the blue whale game, as well as almost seventy cases of teenagers being involved in deadly games.


Blue whale suicide group on the Internet

“Information aimed at involving teenagers in a suicidal game, the condition of which is committing suicide according to the instructions of the curator, was recognized as contrary to the interests of an indefinite circle of people,” the press service of the regional prosecutor’s office reported.
On March 5, a tragedy occurred in the working-class village of Karsun. Young and beautiful 16-year-old Anya from a prosperous and wealthy family suddenly committed suicide for everyone, blue whale suicide group. The girl could not be saved. Almost immediately, the Blue Whale surfaced in the media. A game that, as it turns out, is well known to students and schoolchildren.
In almost thirty cases, criminal cases were initiated for incitement to suicide. However, investigators have still not found the person responsible for these crimes. Dozens of groups on social media. networks were blocked, but the activity of deadly games continues to remain high.
The problem of “death groups” in social networks will be discussed at a press conference in Astana “Monitoring of social networks really shows the presence of pages on social networks calling on children to join the game. Unfortunately, it turned out that minors in the Zhambyl region are also involved in the orbit of this game: an 8th grade student from one of the schools in the district has already completed two tasks from an unknown administrator of a page on the social network on VKontakte, some are still only registered as a blue whale suicide group,” they reported at the prosecutor's office.


Why and what kind of game is the blue whale?

One of the main problems of “death groups” is the fact that teenagers themselves try to become participants in the games, and often do. The call sign for the game is thematic hashtags, what kind of game is the blue whale. Lately, not everyone can become a participant in such a game. Administrators of “death groups” often check any suspicious information about a potential participant, carefully study his psychological and moral state, and assess whether he is suicidal.
Now, after several tragic cases of child suicide, it is possible to identify signs that indicate a child’s participation in this game. Fatigue, exhaustion, lethargy are signs of lack of sleep. This is a consequence of one of the conditions of the game - getting up early. Hence the hashtag #wake me up at 4.20.
The appearance of the game “Blue Whale” has been recorded in at least two European countries; in addition, there has been interest in it on the American continent, the publication claims. Searches for “whale”, what kind of game is the blue whale, in English and some European languages ​​have increased hundreds of times.
At the same time, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan notes that after blocking a number of suspicious communities on social media. networks, there are many other thematic groups on the Internet, the purpose of which, however, is not teenage suicide. In most cases, such groups are created for the purpose of PR, gaining likes and reposts.


Blue whale play death

“Blue Whale”, or F57, or “Silent House” - these are the names of hundreds of communities on various social networks: they cultivate the aesthetics of death and suicide.
According to one version, the name blue whale is associated with the phenomenon of mass beaching of whales, after which the death of the animals occurs.
There are many versions. We don't know which one is true. All we now know absolutely for sure is that adults work with children - systematically, systematically and clearly, step by step pushing them to the last line. Work with knowledge of their passions and hobbies, using the vocabulary and culture they love. They work with knowledge of psychology, instilling in girls that they are “fat” and in boys that they are “losers” for this world.
In one of the clinics in Ivano-Frankivsk, they found a 13-year-old girl with strange cuts on her hands, who knew the blue whale to play, which is what she took part in the deadly online game “Blue Whale”.
Children who are members of death groups often behave as usual, without giving the appearance that they have already entered into the so-called game, and carry out dangerous tasks while everyone is sleeping. It is at 4:20 in the morning that administrators write to them, since at this time it is easiest to manage the child. Parents should be careful and spend more time communicating with their children.


Who invented and what is a blue whale

Egor Markov, senior assistant to the head of the Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee for Transbaikal region: “We will find out the presence of coordinators of these games, what a blue whale is, as well as other causal conditions that contribute to children’s passion for such games.”
In death groups, children find interest and do not even suspect how it all might end in the end. After registering in the group, they indicate to the curator the reason for the decision to commit suicide and ask for help with this. Children receive letters every day telling them what a blue whale is, that suicide is a way out of any situation, and that the other world is much brighter and more colorful. Children are driven into their heads that only by leaving their body and consciousness will they get rid of their problems.
After this, the virtual participant in the game, created by a Radio Liberty correspondent, receives the first task - to scratch the F58 symbols on her hand. Photoshop comes into play, but for some reason the curator stops reading the messages and the second task never arrives.
Representatives of these communities call themselves whales, because these are the animals that are associated with freedom. That is why in such communities there are a lot of pictures and videos of whales flying. The curator also influences the child’s psyche through videos of children committing suicide, where there are a lot of symbols of death and unpleasant sounds.


Blue Whale - list of tasks from 1 to 50 for children

As Kazakh media previously reported with reference to the “Kazakh Parents Association for Support of Family and Family Values”, a dangerous game “Blue Whale” or “Silent House” has appeared on social networks. Through the community of the same name on the social network, children and teenagers are encouraged to join the game, the essence of which is that each player must complete 50, blue whale - a list of tasks from 1 to 50, tasks.
Full list tasks for the blue whale
1. Use a blade to cut f57 on your hand.
2. Wake up at 4.20 and watch scary videos.
3. Cut along the veins of the arm (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 (lots of cuts, etc.).
6. A task with a code, like a quest.
7. Scratch f40.
8. Write in the status #I'm a whale.
9. Must overcome my fear.
10. Get up at 4.20 and go to the roof.
11. You need to scratch or draw a whale on your hand.
12. Watch scary videos all day.
13. Listen to the music they send you.
14. Cut your lip.
15. Poking your hand with a needle.
16. Hurt yourself.
17. Go to the biggest roof and stand on the edge.
18. Climb onto the bridge.
19. Climb onto the crane.
20. Trust test.
21. I need to talk to the whale on Skype.
22. Sit upside down on the edge of the roof.
23. Again tasks with a code.
24. Secret mission.
25. Meet a whale.
26. They tell you the date of death, and you have to accept it.
27. At 4.20 go to the rails.
28. Do not communicate with anyone.
29. Swear that you are a whale
First you need to cut the veins, blue whale - list of tasks from 1 to 50, and draw a whale design on your hand using a blade. The last of the tasks is the mandatory execution of suicide. Otherwise, the organizers of the game threaten to deal with the player’s relatives. Currently, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan is taking measures to block such pages on social networks, and has also organized explanatory work with psychologists and the parent community.


Game blue whale what kind of hobby is it

VKontakte death groups, how to find out if a child is in them: how to influence a child.
Basically, the child does not show external signs of play, since he plays the game at night when no one is looking. It is better not to force your child to show his pages on social networks, because this can affect his pride. A child may stop trusting adults, then he may completely withdraw into himself and suicide will be inevitable.
At one of the bus stops in Uzhgorod, a large graffiti appeared with the image “4:20”, the game blue whale, what is it, and a hieroglyph under it. The “4:20” symbol is a specific code that participants in the dangerous deadly game we talked about earlier will recognize. The numbers indicate the time at which children must wake up to receive the next task of the Blue Whale game, what is it. It was not chosen by chance: it is then that the human psyche is most susceptible to influence and is unable to resist suggestion.


Blue whale group from the government

Dozens of teenagers across the country became participants in the dangerous game. Since the beginning of 2017, six people committed suicide in Transbaikalia alone. Seven more young Transbaikal players are undergoing treatment in a psychiatric hospital. A pre-investigation investigation has begun into the involvement of minors in suicidal games in Chita.
The safest way to find out about a child’s participation in death groups, the blue whale group, is to join them, introducing yourself as a teenager and independently communicate with the curator. When the curator provides access to the groups, you can simply go to the list of participants and check if your child is there.
After the original f57 was blocked, a person under the pseudonym Philip Lis took the initiative in promoting the group’s ideas. He created several communities on similar topics, and also adopted all the ideas of “Insiders” and “Sea of ​​Whale”, the blue whale group.
If the child does end up there, then there is no need to immediately create a scandal and limit him. You just need to devote more time to him and not show that you know about his participation in these groups. It is also necessary to seek help from a psychologist.


Blue whale group VK to reduce the population

Dasha put the hashtag “in the game” into a bet. She wanted to prove that none of the psychological hooks of the blue whale group VK had any effect on her. I didn’t complete the tasks; I downloaded photos from the Internet to report to the game curators. She is one of the few who went through the Blue Whale to the end and survived.
Recently, the media began to vigorously discuss the activities of the so-called online death communities, called “Sea of ​​Whale” or “Silent House”, etc., which incited participants - and these are mostly teenagers - to commit self-mutilation, perform some dangerous tasks, and finally - suicide.
From November 2015 to April 2016, 130 children died in the country under various circumstances. Most of some of them were members of online “death groups.” After almost every death of a teenager, many aggressive and cruel comments appear on his page on social networks. 90 percent of them are published by robots. This is done to ensure that the topic remains in the information space. Experts from the Blue Whale group argue that the increase in teenage mortality is part of a large hybrid war against Russia. And the State Duma is preparing a bill aimed at combating “death groups.”


Blue whale group of death as an instrument for death

Participants registered in these closed groups through social networks and then performed certain tasks as coordinators incognito. These anonymous organizers, manipulating the fragile consciousness of teenagers and their desires to assert themselves, led children to death.
A 36-year-old resident of the capital contacted the Moscow police. She spoke about involving her 13-year-old son in the game “Blue Whale,” a blue whale group of death, and also presented correspondence with the so-called curators who demanded to “cut your mother.”
Now communities, the blue whale group of death, are prohibited, the accounts of those who want to take part in dangerous entertainment are blocked. In general, it is unknown what the exact statistics are for deaths resulting from the activities of these groups. However, on February 19, a case was recorded in Kyiv when two teenage girls had to complete the final task - jump from a high-rise building.
In Moscow, police are conducting an investigation into the correspondence of a 13-year-old schoolboy with the curators of the “death group.”
The woman read her son’s correspondence on VKontakte with the curator of the “death group” and found out that the child was ordered to complete several tasks.


Blue whale tasks for boredom

Parents, police and teachers are concerned about the safety of children. For example, in the Sumy region, police are already conducting forced medical examinations of schoolchildren, identifying Blue Whale participants with characteristic cuts on their hands. Parents of such teenagers are brought to administrative responsibility for “negligence.”
Together they went up to the top floor, one of the schoolgirls got scared and left. It was she who was first sought out by the police, to whom she told where her friend might be. However, the fugitive was not at the place where they separated. It took several hours to search for her - and in the end the girl was found, she was in a helpless state and could not explain why she was doing this.
In the Dnepropetrovsk region, the police identify two “curators” of the game who threatened teenagers with the murder of their relatives for leaving the quest. Three deaths were also recorded here: two schoolchildren were poisoned by pills, one died under undisclosed circumstances.
Criminal proceedings have been initiated under Art. 120 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Law enforcement officers are clarifying all the circumstances of the incident and have brought in cyber police officers to identify those involved in the crime. Attackers who push children to commit suicide face up to ten years in prison.

“Death groups”, in which teenagers are incited to commit suicide and which were actively discussed last year, have migrated from VKontakte to other social networks - in particular, Twitter and Instagram. The hashtags #bluekit #quiethome #Iwantvigra #morekitov #wakemein420 #f57, which were popular in already blocked VK groups, where the administrator was Philip Lis (Budeikin) - investigators detained him in November 2016 for inciting suicide ( Part 4, Article 33, Article 110 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Sergei Pestov, head of the “Center for Saving Children from Cybercrimes” (social activists, volunteers and parents of dead children who fell under the influence of “death groups” work here), told the Portal website journalist that they noticed that there was a change in social networks when the administration of “VKontakte” began to block communities with such content. However, now there is a peak in activity from children who want to play a deadly quest. Thus, at the time of writing, there were more than 26 thousand posts on Twitter with the hashtag #quiethome, and about 5 thousand more with the hashtag #morekits. More than 33 thousand similar publications are on Instagram.

Apparently, a game called "Blue Whale" has begun, which lasts 50 days. Teenagers write a post with these hashtags, thereby confirming that they are in the game, and so-called curators begin working with them, giving them tasks. Or these curators themselves write to schoolchildren that they are now also in the game and they cannot escape.

It is important to note that now not only schoolchildren from Russia are lured into these networks, but also from Kazakhstan, where they only recently learned about the high-profile case of Philip Lis and investigations into “death groups.” In addition, Roskomnadzor bans do not apply in this country.

Teenagers who fall for these scams apparently leave their phone number with handlers so they can be woken up at 4:20 a.m. and told what to do. Further communication already takes place either on Viber or WhatsApp, less often on VKontakte. The first task is to carve a whale on your hand, the last, fiftieth task is to commit suicide: hang yourself or jump from the roof.

Also, teenagers need to kill an animal and do something else - every day the child must send a report “on the work done.” If he does not do this, they begin to threaten him, saying that they will kill his family or himself. Then the schoolboy, frightened, agrees. This, for example, happened to Damir from Astana: he published screenshots of correspondence with his curator on social networks, in which he was forced to continue the game. He asked someone to help him and warned others not to repeat his mistake.

And also with tips for parents on how to recognize that a child has joined a deadly quest, and for teenagers on how to leave the game.

In addition, social network users are starting to write to those who decided to join the game, asking them to come to their senses and refuse to participate in it. They invite children to talk, talk about their problems, ask them not to hurt themselves, not to succumb to blackmail and threats, and especially not to give up their lives.

Please note that messages with such hashtags on VKontakte are immediately blocked by the site administration, but this is not done in other social networks. Pestov admits that Roskomnadzor promptly responds to statements that such groups exist, but it is difficult for the agency to work with Instagram and Twitter, which are not under Russian jurisdiction, as well as with messengers that use complex encryption methods.

Pestov notes that the “Center for Saving Children from Cybercrime” encounters “death groups” every day and transmits information about them, as well as about communities and individual pages with content promoting suicide, for blocking to Roskomnadzor. Now we know about the game, which recruited 26 people; We are working with both the participants and the organizers.

According to Pestov, after the arrest of Budeikin, the Investigative Committee is carrying out large-scale work to find those who lead “death groups” and who push teenagers to commit suicide. However, the results have not yet been disclosed - an investigative secret.

Sergey Pestov, head of the Center for Saving Children from Cybercrimes:

Parent groups and volunteers work around the clock. Over the past three months alone, we have sent information about more than 180 children identified in these groups to law enforcement agencies and social services of many constituent entities of the Russian Federation in order to carry out preventive work with them. Parents come to us when they notice that their child is involved in these games. In these situations, the recommendation is simple: you must first of all contact psychologists and psychiatrists who will work with children who have become truly dependent. The difficulty is that in our country there are few specialists working with the technique of inciting suicide. Although, rather, here we are talking about the murder of teenagers by the organizers of these groups through psychological influence.

Internet technologist Platon Mamatov, well-known in Yekaterinburg, notes that she really went new wave suicidal games, and it was provoked by “a huge sensation in the press.”

Platon Mamatov, director of the communication agency Magic, inc:

It is difficult to say which of the participants in the process is playing around out of boredom, which is lying, and which is just ordinary teenage bravado. But, unfortunately, real teenage suicides provoked by new youth fashion are also quite possible. It is difficult to influence the movement on Twitter and Instagram using legal methods, since these platforms are outside the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation. Of course, everything that happens can lead to another tightening of control over the Internet. But this will not help, since you cannot turn off the entire Internet. And, therefore, residents of the “quiet house” will find some platforms for interaction. Even if they are suddenly kicked out of Twitter, they will go to the forums. Or in online game chats, for example. Or somewhere else.

Let us recall that in the spring of last year, in which the mechanism was described in detail, how teenagers were persuaded to commit suicide on social networks. It is known, by which one can understand that the child is in such a group and plays this dangerous game. Parents need to read them and memorize them, and monitor their children and their behavior.

Law enforcement agencies became interested in this matter, schools began to hold meetings with students to discuss this problem, Roskomnadzor regularly closes websites, and the management of VKontakte closes public pages and groups where there are calls for suicide. In November, Philip Budeikin, known online under the pseudonym Philip Lis, an administrator of “death groups,” was detained. It is known that he did not act alone, so investigators are looking for his associates, seizing electronic media and other materials relevant to the investigation, interrogating witnesses and victims.