Evaluating News Media Reports on the 'Blue Whale Challenge' for Adherence to Suicide Prevention Safe Messaging Guidelines

Abstract

The Blue Whale Challenge (BWC) is an online viral "game" that allegedly encourages youth and young adults towards self-harming behaviors that could eventually lead to suicide. The BWC can be situated within a larger phenomenon of viral online self-harm challenges, which may be propagated through both social media and news sources. Research has established that suicide is a global public health issue that is known to be influenced by media reporting. Violation of safe messaging guidelines has been shown to increase imitative suicides, particularly in youth and young adults. Given the confirmed effects of news media reporting, we analyzed 150 digital newspaper articles reporting on the BWC to assess whether they adhered to suicide prevention safe messaging guidelines. Overall, 81% of the articles violated at least one contagion-related guideline, most commonly normalizing suicide, discussing means of suicide, and sensationalizing. Even though the majority (91%) of the articles adhered to at least one health-promotion guideline, such as emphasizing prevention, the articles did not follow these guidelines on a deep and comprehensive level. Through thematic analysis, we also found evidence of potential misinformation in reporting, where the articles unequivocally attributed many suicides to the BWC with little or no evidence. Additionally, articles often stated an individual's reason for participating in the challenge without interviewing the individual or those close to the individual, another aspect of potential misinformation due to lack of evidence. A contribution of the current study is the synthesis of safe messaging guidelines that can be used in future research. This study contributes to the understanding of news reporting practices regarding suicide and self-harm in regard to the BWC and similar online challenges. We discuss how sensationalized news media reports on the BWC could unintentionally propagate suicide contagion effects that normalize self-harming behaviors among youth. We then examine implications for practice and policy, such using automated approaches to aid reporters in adhering to safe messaging guidelines.

An Investigation of the Factors Predicting Participation in Social Media Challenge

“…Unlike CC participation, only the experiential attitude and descriptive norm significantly predicted ALS IBC participation. In other words, adolescents and young adults primarily participated in this challenge for two reasons, enjoyment and because of the large number of people completing the ALS IBC, they felt either obligated to participate or that it was normative to do so (Bobo, 2007;Cohen, 2003;Khasawneh et al 2020). We believe the other factors were not significant due to the positive nature of the challenge.…”

Examining the Self-Harm and Suicide Contagion Effects of the Blue Whale Challenge on YouTube and Twitter: Qualitative Study

“…There are also no studies investigating similar challenges that are said to encourage self-harm and suicidal behavior, such as the momo challenge [ 85 ]. However, studies have clearly shown the harmful effects of newspapers, movies, and television portrayals that have led to increased rates of suicide and self-harm after violating safe messaging guidelines [ 33 , 86 - 90 ]. For example, Cooper et al [ 87 ] and Ayers et al [ 88 ] reported that suicide admission counts increased coinciding with the release of the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why , which depicts suicide in a highly graphic and unsafe manner.…”

“…For example, Cooper et al [ 87 ] and Ayers et al [ 88 ] reported that suicide admission counts increased coinciding with the release of the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why , which depicts suicide in a highly graphic and unsafe manner. Suicide contagion has been shown across a variety of entertainment and communication media, and social media has been the focus of recent research interest as a medium for contagion because of the ease with which harmful content can be spread [ 90 - 94 ].…”

Leveraging Social Media for Human Factors Research in Health Care

“…A growing body of literature (Dyson et al, 2016;Mitchell et al, 2014;Roth et al, 2020) has shown evidence that social media can influence self-harming and suicidal behavior, posing a significant threat to public health and safety (Luxton et al, 2012). Yet, one understudied phenomenon is the advent and propagation of viral social media challenges.…”