NEW DELHI: The dangers of the online “game” Blue Whale, believed to push participants towards suicide, have been revealed by the national child helpline, that received 39 calls last year from children entrapped by a challenge posed by a dominating administrator.In September 2017, helpline 1098 received a call that two 15-year old girls from Agra had been rescued at Hoshangabad railway station in Madhya Pradesh. They were running away to Mumbai to deliver on a “task” assigned by the administrator of the game.The girls told a counsellor that the game administrator threatened them that if they quit the game, they would lose their parents.All 39 similar calls from children to 1098 in 2017-18 revealed a link with the Blue Whale Challenge . Some called to deal with the fear generated by the game, others were children in distress requiring physical intervention and then there were those seeking information about the game.The case studies form part of the 187 complaints of online abuse reported to Childline.These cases include videos with child sexual abuse material, corporal punishment depictions, pornography and stalking. In 2016-17, Childline received 57 cases of online abuse and the last year saw this number increase to 187. The highest percentage of cases reported to 1098 are of children in the age group of 11-18 years.“In most of the cases of online abuse that are coming to 1098 there is a common thread -either online abuse ended in contact abuse or vice versa,” Harleen Walia from Childline told TOI. The counsellors highlight that awareness regarding online safety is limited among victims as well as care-givers and service providers.In a fairly typical case, a teenaged girl from Varanasi called in 2016 and informed that a cousin had created a fake account on a social media platform using her name and mobile number. She alleged that her cousin sister had posted obscene messages and photos resulting in calls from unknown people. In all cases, Childline reports the matter to cyber crime units of police and also intervenes if the victim is facing offline abuse.The call locations show that in 2017-18, as many as 156 cases were reported from residential areas, 12 from institutions and 6 from schools. There were five complaints where call locations reflected streets and pavements. This could indicate that while online abuse is clearly impacting children with access to computers living in middle and higher income areas, children in slums and streets are also exposed, probably through mobile phones. Cases are being reported from metros and small category B and C cities. In most cases, either the caller was found to be the child or a family member reporting the case.The counsellors highlight that awareness regarding online safety is limited among victims as well as care-givers and service providers. Childline estimates that in the next three years or so – active phone connections would be about 1.5 billion and 400 million Indians will access internet via mobiles and nearly 75 million children below the age of 18 will have access to smart phones and internet.