Online Suicide Games: A Form of Digital Self-harm or A Myth?
This research addresses the societal concern regarding online suicide games for parents, educators, and authorities, clarifying that these games are likely a myth rather than a genuine threat.
This paper investigates the phenomenon of online suicide games, such as the Blue Whale Challenge and Momo, which are claimed to involve a series of challenges culminating in suicide. The authors found no evidence that these games are real, concluding that media, social media, and authority warnings primarily spread challenge culture and exaggerate fears.
Online suicide games are claimed to involve a series of challenges, ending in suicide. A whole succession of these such as the Blue Whale Challenge, Momo, the Fire Fairy and Doki Doki have appeared in recent years. The challenge culture is a deeply rooted online phenomenon, whether the challenge is dangerous or not, while social media particularly motivates youngsters to take part because of their desire for attention. Although there is no evidence that the suicide games are real, authorities around the world have reacted by releasing warnings and creating information campaigns to warn youngsters and parents. We interviewed teachers, child protection experts and NGOs, conducted a systematic review of historical news reports from 2015-2019 and searched police and other authority websites to identify relevant warning releases. We then synthesized the existing knowledge on the suicide games phenomenon. A key finding of our work is that media, social media and warning releases by authorities are mainly just serving to spread the challenge culture and exaggerate fears regarding online risk.