Students need to be made aware about the dangers of online games like Blue Whale: SC

The Supreme Court on 20 November said that awareness needs to be created among students about the dangers of online games like **Blue Whale** with parents and teachers shouldering key responsibility to ensure that young impressionable minds don’t get trapped into it. [caption id=“attachment_3935927” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image.[/caption] Directing the Chief Secretaries of all states to make students in state-run schools aware about the dangers of online games like Blue Whale, the bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said that parents and teachers have a primary responsibility in this endeavour. The court said this in its order on a petition seeking steps to deal with the spate of suicides by youngsters who got hooked to playing Blue Whale. The court was moved by advocate Sneha Kalita. Pronouncing the order, Chief Justice Misra said that it was the duty of the state to make people aware of the dangers and the same has to be done with clarity and concern. The court said that the awareness campaign has to be not just about the game alone but on the “dignity of life”. Saying that parents have the “primary duty” to ensure that children don’t get “trapped in such games”, the court observed that it was incumbent upon parents to “instil a sense of optimism and give love and affection” to such children.