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For some time now, challenges have been popular on the Internet and many adolescents follow them without thinking about the consequences. The challenge that’s causing a stir on social media at the moment is the Blue Whale Challenge, which was created in Russia.

This challenge consisting of 50 dares that are more or less dangerous functions on the principle of sponsorship. The person who wishes to participate in this « game » must find a curator who will assign him a series of challenges. The first challenges are mostly harmless : draw a whale on an arm, write « I’m a Whale » on one’s Facebook wall…and then come the challenges related to violence : cut one’s lips, hit oneself, scar oneself with the word « whale » grazed onto one’s hand, sit on the ledge of a roof…all leading to the 50th challenge which is letting oneself die.

According to the Russian media outlet Novaya Gazeta, 130 young people have died after having participated in the Blue Whale Challenge.

This is not the only challenge that is harmful, for example the Ice Salt Challenge, for which the goal is to apply salt and ice to oneself and withstand it for as long as possible, is also very dangerous. Many « players » suffered serious burns that were sometimes irreversible !

These foolish and dangerous challenges are one of the many reasons why social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and others are to be prohibited for children. Indeed, these « games » may seem harmless, and the very young find themselves involved in spite of themselves in a diabolical logic of one-upmanship, reinforced by group pressure that puts them in danger without their realizing it.

Monster Messenger, the secure social network for children under age 13, ensures that children are protected from all kinds of challenges of this nature, while allowing the youngest children to benefit from a secure social network under the control of their parents.

As many studies have proven, it is unrealistic for parents to forbid their children access to social media platforms, as this creates an additional desire that makes children even more motivated to lie about their age and create an account in secret, if not at home, then on a friend’s device. Monster Messenger delivers parents a secure alternative to traditional social media networks and prepares children to be well « armed » to resist the risks on these social networks the day they are old enough to create accounts on them.