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Delhi High Court expresses concern over Blue Whale game, seeks orders from Centre

The court, however, did not pass any orders and wished to know whether the government has issued any prohibition order with regard to downloading the Blue Whale game.

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The Delhi High Court on Thursday expressed concerns over the suicide of children while playing a challenge-based game on the Internet where the final dare is to kill himself/herself.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and C Harishankar questioned why adults are engaging in the game stating that they can understand that children can get swayed. "If an adult is told to do a task, why would he/she go and jump from a building," it said, adding that "we are wondering why both children and adults are doing this."

The court, however, did not pass any orders and wished to know whether the government has issued any prohibition order with regard to downloading the Blue Whale game.

The court also sought to know from the petitioner, advocate Gurmeet Singh, whether any such incident has happened in Delhi. It asked the petitioner whether any prohibition order can be passed, and fixed the matter for further hearing on August 22.

A plea had been filed seeking directions to the Internet companies including Google, Facebook and Yahoo to take down the links of game. "There is definitely a self-harm aspect behind these actions. Gaming causes addiction and in Blue Whale Challenge, after completing the few initial challenges, it is difficult to pull out due to the addiction it causes," said Dr Shobhana Mittal, Psychiatrist, Delhi Psychiatry Centre.

"The game is just a trigger though, there are underlying issues like low self-esteem, depression and sometimes stress which leads to these steps. Lifestyle is another contributing factor," she added.

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