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Stories about viral challenges responsible for child suicides around the world are old hat, and to be honest, I pay them little mind. In fact, I’ve avoided talking about them, preferring not to give them any importance and avoid spreading them. Yet comments about these kinds of hoax still pop in unexpected places even from people I would have thought would know better, from which I can only conclude that belief in them is more entrenched than I had originally thought.
Rumors about the Blue Whale Challenge date back to 2016, Momo to 2018, both of them examples of collective hysteria in which irresponsible media, fearful parents and even schools participated in, warning of the supposed dangers of games that neither exist as such, and that have never been linked to anyone’s death. Talk about smartphones or computers with people who have children of school age and they’ll soon bring the subject up, or even claim to have seen some of these videos.
Both topics are perfectly documented, defined and labeled as hoaxes on Wikipedia, and it is easy to find information in reliable media that have researched them and that call for calm. These are simply ghost stories for the digital age.
Of course, it is also possible to find fake news in sensationalist media reporting suicides, none of which stands up to questioning. There are even movies about the subject. The experts warn of the danger of contributing to these type of hoaxes, and that the media, the police and the schools have been asked to stop doing so. Let’s be clear: there haven’t been “dozens of suicides,” in Russia or anywhere else that could have been linked to any viral game on the internet. There are no children’s videos that suddenly insert images like those described — and any there might be haven’t prompted suicides. In general, although we might not believe it, our children are not that stupid. Children do not commit suicide because a a video tells them to. Instead, it’s adults who believe these hoaxes, so let’s stop worrying about non-existent dangers.
It’s the same old story: we hear a rumor that chimes with our biases and beliefs that the internet is dangerous and that children need to be protected and so off they go on their mission to save the children without taking the time to do four searches to try to verify if a story is true. “If I see it discussed in the media and my kid’s school warns me about it, then it must be true.” Perhaps it reflects some deep-seated and well-meaning need to protect children. The problem is that it doesn’t help.
The simple fact of the matter is that these hoaxes are latter-day versions of the Bogeyman. Stories that are copied, pasted and then shared, but that have no connection to reality, however much parents and teachers insist “they have seen it”, that “the police have said it” or that dozens of children have committed suicide in Russia. The internet even has a term for such stories: creepypasta, “horror-related legends or images that have been copied and pasted around the Internet.”
Our children are not at risk from ghost stories, and the benefits of them learning to manage the internet (and not falling for dumb hoaxes and fake news) far exceed any possible dangers. Let’s start using our critical faculties, learn to verify news, and stop helping spread unsubstantiated nonsense, please.
