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,
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
#threat #newthreat #new_threat #danger #internetcommunity #internet_community #RedDolphin #Red_Dolphin #BlueWhale #Blue_Whale #school #kindergarten #college #university #murder
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