Chat groups where kids plot how to ‘run away and get a life’

Moving with his busy parents to a new place where he did not have friends and the lockdown took a toll on a 13yearold boy who fed up with the situation ran away from home What helped him in the process was being part of a private chat group through an app and discussing his plans with others of around the same age Fortunately the Badlapur police rescued him from Goa and the boy now wised up says what he did was wrongThe boy studying in an international school is an only child He learnt about the app from a YouTube video ldquoSince January 2021 he was active on the app as part of a closed group named lsquoRun away and Get a Lifersquo But he left it and formed a group on October 25 named lsquoPerfect plansrsquo which had 7 membersrdquo said a police officer from Badlapur police stationThe boy had asked members of his group on discord to meet him in Goa Representation picOn October 31 he told his parents he was leaving the house for a year and would come back His parents thought he was joking But after a couple of hours they didnrsquot find himThe parents checked with his grandmother people in the neighbourhood his school friends but no one had a clue They then registered a complaint at the Badlapur police stationFriend gives a clueldquoThe boy had left with a mobile phone without a SIM card a laptop and Rs 2000Rs 3000 CCTV footage near his home showed him walking towards the railway station but he didnrsquot board a local A friend of his told us about a link which he had received from him it was of a chatting apprdquo said API Sandesh MoreThe police found the app lsquodiscordrsquo that enables private chat rooms to selected people They got the location of the boy at KolhapurldquoWhen a team was enroute Kolhapur the boy did a video call to his mother saying he was alright and she need not worry We tracked his location to Goa The local police and crime branch were immediately informed They took the boy into custody from a Calangute beach hotel on Monday nightrdquo added another officerThe boy was accompanied by a 21yearold from Guntur Andhra Pradesh whom the police let off The duo planned to go to Bangalore to meet another memberThe police said that on October 31 the boy had met his Guntur friend at Kalyan They then travelled to many places including Thane Sion Kolhapur and GoaThe boy had asked members of his group on discord to come to Goa They planned to pose as orphans and get a certificate from a Goa orphanage They wanted to go abroad They wanted to invest in bitcoins and earn money for a year before returning homeldquoThough the boys had plans they didnrsquot have official documents such as a passport to leave the country They also had little money The boy from Guntur had brought Rs 10000 thatrsquos all they hadrdquo said Senior Inspector Shrikant SondeMinor stopped from runningAfter the Badlapur boy was rescued he told the cops a group member a 17yearold was leaving home from MiraBhayander on November 5 The Badlapur police immediately informed the family and asked them to get him counselledThe police said the 13yearold boyrsquos family shifted from Nashik to Badlapur due to his fatherrsquos job His father stayed in Vasai near his job location and visited home on the weekends The boyrsquos mother runs a preschool In Badlapur the boy had no friends The loneliness increased during the lockdown During chats he told other members he was lonely and ignored by his family However the police said after the boy was reunited with his family his father quit his job and vowed to look after himmidday spoke to the boy who said he had realised his mistake ldquoI urge kids of my age not to get manipulated or carried away They should stay away from such apps If they know of their friendrsquos intentions to run away or have a suicide pact they should immediately inform the police about themrdquo he saidHow the app got the boy hookedThe boy told the police how he came upon the app ldquoIn January I came across a YouTube video which mentioned few apps through which one can join private chatrooms with likeminded people It allows users to create groups named lsquoserverrsquoldquoI downloaded the app and found various servers There was one named lsquoRunaway and get a lifersquo There were many users who shared their experiences of disturbed childhood Some had bad parents who didnrsquot look after their children Some faced violence at home Even I shared my ordeal There were discussions of many ways to run away from homerdquo he saidldquoThe impact of the chats and experiences lured me further and unknowingly I got more involved But I found nobody was actually interested in running away So I made a separate group inviting 6 others which led to thisrdquo he concluded