Despite spreading awareness months before the youth of Pakistan were even familiar with the words ‘Blue Whale Challenge’, efforts have seemed to go down the drain.
We are saying this because despite countless efforts of preventing this deadly suicide game going viral and that’s not it. Pakistan ranks at #1 for most searches worldwide for the term ‘Blue Whale’ according to Google Trends.
No kidding!
*Searches change and are not timebound
‘Blue Whale’ Term Search
Breaking the search further into regions, it was found that the highest number of searches belonged to Federally Administered Tribal Areas, followed by Balochistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Sindh, and KPK, followed by Punjab, Gilgit-Baltistan and lastly Islamabad Capital Territory.
While coming to cities, in particular, most searches came from Hyderabad, Rawalpindi, Quetta, Karachi, and Multan.
‘Blue Whale Game’ Term Search
Coming to the term ‘Blue Whale Game’ Pakistan ranks 2nd, right behind India, followed by Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal.
Breaking down by Sub-Region, the term was highly searched in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Sindh, Punjab, KPK, and Balochistan.
While the top cities in the search include Hyderabad, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Gujranwala, and Multan.
This is highly concerning, given that the numbers are increasing day by day!
Blue Whale Challenge Curator is Harassing Pakistani Girls on WhatsApp!
Preventions Parents can Take
Parents need to make this their responsibility for checking with their kids, talking to them, trying to understand if they are going through a tough time. Parents should be involved in their child’s life and must investigate if the child is being bullied, is a part of the wrong social circle, has peer pressure, is depressed, etc. The involvement of a responsible parent can stop this nonsense from continuing.
Potential Signs of Suicidal Person
- Talking about suicide, death, and/or no reason to live
- Preoccupation with death and dying
- Withdrawal from friends and/or social activities
- Experience of a recent severe loss (especially a relationship) or the threat of a significant loss
- Experience or fear of a situation of humiliation of failure
- Drastic changes in behavior
- Loss of interest in hobbies, work, school, etc.
- Preparation for death by making out a will (unexpectedly) and final arrangements
- Giving away prized possessions
- Previous history of suicide attempts, as well as violence and/or hostility
- Unnecessary risks; reckless and/or impulsive behavior
- Loss of interest in personal appearance
- Increased use of alcohol and/or drugs
- General hopelessness
- Recent experience humiliation or failure
- Unwillingness to connect with potential helpers
Some other things to look out for:
- Are they spending more time online or on devices?
- Look for signs of isolation
- Look for any loss of interest
- Watch for changes in behavior or personality
- Experts also said parents should understand that while their children are very smart, their emotional development doesn’t always match up with their intellectual or academic development.
