'Blue Whale': But Nechama Brodie - the head of Tri-Fact training and research at Africa Check - says there is nothing to suggest such an app or website exists.
"What we've seen - and this is a pattern that gets repeated over and over again - is that sometimes viral stories that came out of someone's imagination, that were completely fictional, become real over time because we've invested so much interest in them. So it didn't exist before but not it exists as a concept."
She says the information on Blue Whale fits a "very classic profile of typical hoaxes and scares that we see around vulnerable populations and around teenagers in particular."
http://m.ewn.co.za/2017/05/11/blue-whale-a-new-online-suicide-game-targeting-teens
Although certain game groups on social media have been accused of promoting suicide, they have not been found to have directly caused an uptick in young people taking their own lives.