Odisha govt issues yet another advisory on Blue Whale game

Bhubaneswar: The Electronics & IT Department of Odisha government today issued an advisory to the parents and teachers to protect children from the deadly online game Blue Whale challenge.

Blue Whale game is a social media challenge that encourages children, teenagers to perform specific tasks over the course of 50 days that are assigned to them by an anonymous administrator. The Blue Whale challenge does not require any dedicated websites, applications or mobile applications to participate in this game.

The advisory to parents and teachers is as follows:

“DO NOT PANIC”. A child participating in this game is already under significant trauma, so talk to your child in a calm and patient manner. She/he may need the help of a psychologist.

Always be vigilant about your child’s online activity in social media and if you find your child already playing the Blue Whale Challenge then restrict him/her from using internet and inform local police authority for further assistance.

Teachers/hostel in-charge needs to keep an eye on social behavior of the students sensitize and restrict them from this internet game.

Be careful while using social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, etc.)

Use strong privacy settings and password. Don’t share the password with others.

Use HTTPS to connect to your social networking sites whenever possible, especially when connecting from public hotspot. Beware of your social networking service only use HTTP for login credentials only.

Verify friend/follower requests before acceptance and also verify the links, attachments, downloads, emails or anything sent to you.

Set your search engine to “safe search” mode on your web browser (Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Safari, Opera etc).  Use Parental controls provided by your computer’s/other device’s operating system to restrict access over the internet.

This comes a day after state police issued an advisory in this regard.