The son of former MP Hamdy El-Fakharany, 18-year-old Khaled El-Fakharany, was found to have hung himself in his home in Gharbeya governorate on 2 April, having been coaxed into committing the act by a deadly online game. The disturbing incident has been the subject of intense debate in the Egyptian media over the last few days – especially considering the extremely low suicide rate in the country. ‘The Blue Whale’ – also known as ‘A Silent House’, ‘A Sea of Whales,’ and ‘Wake me up at 4:20 am’ – is an internet game, devised in Russia in 2013 by Philipp Budeikin. Targeting vulnerable teenagers, it requests users to sign up on an internet platform and contact an assigned administrator. The ‘game’ provides the player with a daily task to complete for 50 days, beginning with simple tasks like waking up at a certain time. They gradually get more severe, enticing users to self-harm, and at the end of the period, on the final level, the administrator tells the player to kill themselves. Budekin, who was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison in 2017, told the police that he considered his…
