13-Year-Old Kills Herself In ‘Blue Whale’ Challenge

A 13 year-old-girl from Adana, Turkey, shot herself dead after being influenced by the “Blue Whale" challenge — a social networking phenomenon that had been linked to several teenagers’ death in different countries. The incident took place Jan. 21.

The victim was identified as Emine Karadağ. Following the instructions given in the online challenge, she used her father’s licensed rifle to kill herself. She was found dead in her bed, news agency Sputnik Turkey reported.

Her uncle Mahmut Karadağ said, "She has laid on the bed [sic], put a single bullet in her father's rifle and shot herself.”

While going through Emine’s notes after the incident, the family found pictures of whales, a list of 25 things to do that said “before I die,” and a note that began with the words “Suicide is an escape”.

"We read her notebook; we found some drawings and notes. She was part of a group where they have been playing this Blue Whale game,” Mahmut said. "We found notes saying today she will do this and that, 'we will beat these children, we will commit suicide and go to heaven and then resurrect and come back here' so she has been completely under the influence of the game,” British daily the Mirror reported.

The family of the victim demanded the government ban such kind of fatal games or challenges that attracted children to end their lives.

"Parents should keep their children away from these online games. She was a very well behaved, quiet girl, she was always greeting us smilingly on the street. It is such a pity that she died," Mahmut added.

Deaths linked to the infamous challenge have earlier been reported from many countries. Banning it is not easy, or even possible, since it is not an app or a product. An individual or group on social media encourages teenagers to perform tasks everyday, such as watching horror movies alone, not talking to anyone, and so on, till the final step that encourages victims to kill themselves. It influences the victim over the course of 50 days, where each day, the player is supposed to follow one instruction and click a picture of task performed as evidence. The challenge claimed over 100 lives across the globe.

It was reportedly created in 2013 by Russian psychology student Philipp Budeikin, who was arrested in May 2017 and sentenced to three years in jail. In an interview with Saint Petersburg News, he admitted to inciting at least 16 teenage girls to take their lives. He said he was cleaning the society of people with no values and they were just “biological waste,” British website Unilad reported.

Confessing to his crime, Budeikin, who was expelled from his university following the incident, said, "Yes, I truly was doing that. Don't worry, you'll understand everything. Everyone will understand."