ArticleScience and engineering ethics2019
'Blue Whale Challenge': A Game or Crime?
Article in Science and engineering ethics, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 78 citations in OpenAlex.
- Impacts of technology on children's health: a systematic review.Revista paulista de pediatria : orgao oficial da Sociedade de Pediatria de Sao Paulo · 2022Pooled it
- The role of bullying victimization in youth suicide: A scoping review of empirical evidence.BMC pediatrics · 2026Article
- Review
- Entropy-based risk network identification in adolescent self-injurious behavior using machine learning and network analysis.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Psychosocial profiles and motivations for adolescent engagement in hazardous games: the role of boredom, peer influence, and self-harm tendencies.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Article
- Factors Contributing to Adolescents' and Young Adults' Participation in Web-Based Challenges: Survey Study.JMIR pediatrics and parenting · 2021Article
- The actions of others act as a pseudo-reward to drive imitation in the context of social reinforcement learning.PLoS biology · 2020Article
- Are you ready for the challenge? Social Media Health Challenges for Behaviour Change.Perspectives on behavior science · 2020Article
- Examining the Self-Harm and Suicide Contagion Effects of the Blue Whale Challenge on YouTube and Twitter: Qualitative Study.JMIR mental health · 2020Article
- Internet for child mental health: Boon or bane.Journal of postgraduate medicineArticle
- Voicing Jordanian Adolescents' Suicide.Nursing researchArticle
- The depressed boy who accepted "Blue Whale Challenge".Indian journal of psychiatryArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A bewildering range of games are emerging every other day with newer elements of fun and entertainment to woo youngsters. Games are meant to reduce stress and enhance the cognitive development of children as well as adults. Teenagers are always curious to indulge in newer games; and e-gaming is one such platform providing an easy access and quicker means of entertainment. The particular game challenge which has taken the world by storm is the dangerous "Blue Whale Challenge" often involving vulnerable teenagers. The Blue Whale Challenge is neither an application nor internet based game but the users get a link through social media chat groups to enter this "deadly" challenge game. This probably is the only game where the participant has to end his/her life to complete the game. The innocent teenagers are being targeted based on their depressed psychology and are coercively isolated from their social milieux on the pretext of keeping the challenges confidential. To add to the woes, no option is offered to quit the challenge even if the contender is unable to complete the challenge. Blue Whale Challenge in its sheer form could be seen as an illegal, unethical and inhumane endeavor in our present society. The present communication discusses the severe effects of the game on teenagers, the ethical concerns involved and the preventive measures necessary to curb it.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.