It's only been a few months since the Blue Whale suicide game entered the Indian consciousness and, already, it seems to have spawned yet another game that poses a threat to our youngsters. This paper reported on a 15-year-old boy from Govandi who went missing, leaving a disturbing note behind for his family, stating that they should consider him dead. Investigators have confirmed that the boy could be playing a game similar to Blue Whale that also induces the player to take their life.

This opens up a worrying new dimension for parents and investigators. The fact is that the Blue Whale may be a many-headed monster, giving rise to a number of different variations and tweaks of the deadly game. Counsellors and educators responded to the Blue Whale reports in Mumbai with alacrity. They held workshops for youngsters and conducted awareness drives. Parents, too, took cognisance and began making some effort to find out what their children were up to on the Internet though, of course, it would be impossible to track what a child does through the entire day. Yet, it was helpful for adults to have some guidelines as to what to look for and when to ring the alarm bells.