Aju Business Daily

There have been many challenges that circulated on social media platforms. Some are for good causes and others are for pure fun. 

Now there is a new trend called Blue Whale Challenge. It is a 50-day challenge that guides its participants through a series of tasks. It begins with harmless challenges but ends with participants' suicides. The challenge began in Russia and the death toll by this challenge in Russia alone is now recorded at 130. 

Isaiah Gonzales, a 15-year-old Texas teen, was found hanging in a closet last Saturday. He is the first U.S. death from Blue Whale Challenge.

Gonzales' parents found the pictures of their son completing each challenge sent to his friends, but none of them informed the local authorities or the family. His friends were already aware that the teen's last dare would be his suicide. Gonzales' sister Scarlet said in an interview with KSAT, a San Antonio news channel, "They blew it off like it was a joke and if one of them would have said something, one of them would have called us, he would have been alive."

Gonzales' father Jorge told KSAT that parents need to check their kids' "phones" and "look at their social media" to prevent what he had to go through from happening before it is too late.

Two men, Philipp Budeikin and Ilya Sidorov, in Russia who created Blue Whale Challenge were arrested separately in May and June. At the time of the arrest, Budeikin told the Russian authorities that his challenge victims were "biological waste" and the challenge can cleanse the society. 








Kwak, Min Jung = abiel@ajunews.com