Ghaziabad suicides: Did three girls jump off a building because a game asked them to?

More details have emerged about the suicide of three girls (aged 12,14, 16) in Ghaziabad last night. For one thing, the teens are part of a five-sibling family. For another, their father is married to two sisters. Of the three involved in the incident, one was the daughter of the first wife and the other two were products of the second marriage.

Finally, the girls were reportedly obsessed with their ‘Korean task-based game’ – which remains unnamed. The young children got addicted to the game reportedly during Covid-19 and the addiction seemed to be taking a toll on their daily lives. They also seemed to feel isolated – an etching on a wall by one of the victims claimed: “I am very, very alone, my life is very, very alone."

Their attendance and performance at school had begun to dip, some think because of their obsession with the digi game and others because of familial financial issues.

The girls were attached to the world they plugged into – they had given themselves Korean alteregos and were quick to take on any task assigned to them in the game. (Task-based games call on players to complete certain activities to get to the next stage. The payout is psychological.)

According to NDTV, Prachi, the 14-year-old, was leading this band of gamers.

The parents, noticing the focus on the gaming, had apparently tried to curb their time on the phone over the last few days. When they took the drastic step, they left behind an eight-page suicide note, in which they wrote: "We can't leave Korea. Korea is our life. You can't free us. We are ending our lives," their father was quoted as telling NDTV.

Meanwhile, investigations continue into whether it was sadness at the gaming restrictions or an in-game task that led to the deaths.