Destructive Communities and Games, «Red Dolphin» a new type of threat to schools and other educational institutions. Part 1.

 

Attention: English is not my native language, the text is translated with the help of technical means of translation. I apologize in advance if the meaning of some phrases will be transferred incorrectly.

In September 2024, two similar attacks on schools took place in Russia, in the cities of Chelyabinsk and Balagansk, one week apart. In both cases, they were internal attacks committed by students of these schools, the same type of weapon (hammer) was used, the similarity and age of the suspects. Both crimes were premeditated, the attacks were preceded by preparation and planning.
In general, against the background of other crimes of a similar category, these two attacks do not stand out in any particular way. However, immediately after the first attack (Chelyabinsk 16.09.2024) in a number of media outlets, Internet communities in social networks and messengers, as well as in the statements of some officials (Maria Lvova-Belova, Russian Presidential Ombudsman for Children's Rights) and public organizations (Safe Internet League), there was information that perhaps this attack was committed not on the personal initiative of the teenager who carried it out, but in order for him to perform a certain task, which he received from the organizers of a closed community on the Internet under the name of «Safe Internet». It should be noted that information about such Internet communities has previously been reported in the media under the name of the game «Blue Whale». Associations in social networks with this name placed depressing content, curators - group owners gave teenagers tasks, the last of which was suicide. Thus, the participants of the communities were compared to whales that are thrown ashore, if a teenager refused to commit suicide, he was threatened with the murder of his family. The peak of activity of this «game» came in 2016-2017, with it was associated with the deaths of several teenagers. At that time, law enforcement agencies, with the support of the public, blocked most of the «Blue Whale» communities in social networks, the police and the Investigative Committee arrested several administrators of these communities and charged them with deliberately leading to suicide. By 2018, the activity of such groups on the Internet and messengers has significantly decreased, they practically did not manifest themselves in any way.

In 2024, the situation changes dramatically. New communities and channels actively appear in social networks and messengers, this time they use the name «Red Dolphin». Not only the name has changed, but also the ideology. If «Blue Whale» encouraged teenagers to injure themselves and the final mission was the suicide of the participant, then in «Red Dolphin» the task is to cause harm to others, and the final mission is also the suicide of the perpetrator, but with the preliminary commission of mass murder.

A little later, on October 01, 2024, in Chelyabinsk and Balagansk, the FSB detains another teenager (16 years old) on suspicion of preparing to commit a mass murder at school. The media indicate that the teenager was a member of some extremist community, where he was indoctrinated with such thoughts, however, the name of the community is not specified.

I repeat that the connection of the attacks on schools in September of this year with the ideology of the «Red Dolphin» is only an assumption, because the investigation materials are not available in open sources, and in the official press releases of the Investigative Committee, this information is also absent. However, given the facts: that this information was received almost simultaneously, from different sources, and that these sources are well informed, as well as the fact that there were no refutations of this information, not from the officials who expressed it, not from the media, not from law enforcement agencies. Therefore, this information is highly likely to be reliable. However, even if this destructive community has nothing to do with these attacks, we should not underestimate the probable threat it poses in the future.

The very fact of the existence of this destructive community is not in doubt, it exists (it is not difficult to check it by corresponding inquiries in messengers and social networks, and there are also many journalistic investigations on this topic), it has already covered several countries informationally, which means that its spread to the whole world is only a matter of time (my forecast is 2-3 months).  

If this «game» becomes widespread, it will form a new type of mass murderer in educational institutions. As of today we are dealing with two main types of such criminals:

1. School Killer (often called «School Shooter» regardless of the type of weapon used) - who commits mass murder for personal motives, they can be many: revenge, personal animosity, mental illness, imitation of other killers, «God Complex» and others. Such crimes are the majority, over 93%.

2. Terrorist - such crimes are still less than 7% (16 out of 249)* of the total number, yet they are among the most dangerous in terms of victims, accounting for 42.6% of the total number of victims (1,732 out of 4,064)*. They are committed by members of a terrorist organization (their supporters, ideological fanatics), in its interests, on the direct orders of its leaders, or on their own initiative.

>In this case, a third type appears, let's call it conditionally – «Controlled killer» - who commits mass murder in a school (kindergarten, college, university) performing the task of the game or on the instructions of the «curator» without a direct personal motive and not in the interests of the terrorist organization. His task is to come to the educational institution, commit mass murder, and in the end commit suicide. This teenager has nothing to lose, there are no deterrents for him.

In my opinion, such crimes tend to appear and develop. However, I also believe that they can be predicted and prevented at the stage of preparation, as well as suppressed at the time of execution. How to do this, I will write in the next part of the article.

I would be glad to hear the opinion of colleagues on this issue, write in comments or private messages.

Author - Roman Grishin

* Statistical data are taken from Handbook of Crimes and Terrorist Acts in schools and other educational institutions

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