Caution: "Groups of Death"

At first we did not want to talk about these groups and did not even really believe in their existence. But, unfortunately, this problem is real and began to spread even in our country.

Groups of death are closed groups, which became popular several years ago on the social network VKontakte. About a year later the wave of popularity of these groups subsided, but at the end of 2016 they again began to gain popularity. And this is despite the fact that one of the first curators was arrested and convicted.

"Blue Whale", "Silent House", "Wake me up at 4:20" -  names of death groups, which today exist not only in one social network VKontakte, but also in Instagram, Facebook and other social networks. And although posts with popular hashtags are tracked and removed by the decision of the administration of social networks and other sites, the organizers of this deadly game do not stop and continue to lure adolescents, acting on them psychologically, suppressing the will, inciting to commit suicide.

Today the above-mentioned groups are created and deleted on a daily basis in social networks. They are created by the "curators of the game", and are deleted by the moderators of social networks. Further there is a promotion of these groups and gathering members. The groups themselves are closed, so if you are not in this group, you will not be able to see what is written there. Getting into the group is also not easy. To do this, adolescents write statuses in their social networks, using hashtags #морекитов (Sea of Whales), #тихийдом(Silent House), #разбудименяв420 (Wake me up at 4:20), #яготов (I’m ready), #дайинструкции (Give me the instruction) #явигре (I’m in the Game).. After this, the curator of a group associates with the person and begins "manipulation".

Children who fall into the "Death Groups" and have accepted the rules of the game begin to systematically carry out the tasks sent to them by the curator. At first the teenager does not suspect anything: he tells about his family, about himself, shows pictures of his home, himself, his life. Then the tasks become more complicated: the children have to do themselves harm and, finally, take the most extreme measures, as the curators begin to threaten and promise to kill the parents or loved ones.

It is very important that you, as parents or close relatives, be very attentive to the behavior of children and adolescents. Here are a number of signs that the child is at risk and may have already started playing a deadly game:

• The child regularly removes history from browsers;
• Photos of bruises or cuts appeared on the phone or camera (whether you caught a child for how he photographs his wounds);
• Your children started to wake up very early (4.20) and take screenshots, photos with a note, where it's done;
• The teenager started making selfies against a background of heights;
• The correspondence of the child with one of his friends contains information about your home address, work place, etc.

If you are experiencing one of these symptoms, as soon as possible, seek help from a psychologist and the police. Children who are under pressure on the Internet will find it very difficult to cope with this problem on their own.

We hope that this information will be useful and will help save someone's life. We also recommend installing KidLogger on the phones and computers of children. This will help you keep track of who your child is communicating with and what is published on the Internet. The program allows you to take screenshots when working with Android, Windows, macOS and iOS. In addition, KidLogger for Windows, macOS and Android can record typed text, messages in Skype, VKontakte, etc. Even if you do not want to constantly monitor children, now these precautions are really necessary and can protect the life and health of your child.