Deadly Online ‘Suicide Game’ Pushes Mauritian Youth to the Brink

A chilling online “game” is luring vulnerable young people in Mauritius into a deadly spiral, with police warning that an anonymous “mentor” is pushing them towards suicide. The disturbing phenomenon, dubbed “Audacity and Truth,” reportedly recruits minors through the encrypted messaging app, Telegram.

The game’s 50-day progression is designed to manipulate and isolate participants, exploiting their psychological vulnerabilities.

It has prompted a stark warning from Constable Hissen Caramben, a Mauritian officer linked to an international investigation agency.

“Suicide is never a spontaneous act,” he cautioned. “It is a slow, insidious and often invisible psychological process.”

Legal and Parental Responsibility Gaps

Constable Caramben has highlighted a significant legal vacuum, pointing out that the nation’s Children’s Act fails to clearly define parents’ responsibility for their children’s digital device use.

He argued that a lack of parental attention can leave youngsters susceptible to “pseudo-mentors” who offer a false sense of recognition, manipulate them into self-destructive behaviour, and encourage them to turn against their families.

The officer drew a sharp contrast between Mauritius and countries like China and Japan, where children’s digital access is tightly regulated within educational and cultural frameworks.

He noted, “In Mauritius, there is no control. The same platforms are used to search for forbidden content. And it starts very young.”

The Challenge of Encrypted Platforms

Telegram, with its high level of confidentiality, poses a unique challenge to law enforcement. Its features—including ephemeral messages and secret groups—make it incredibly difficult to monitor.

Constable Caramben said, “It’s a difficult platform to monitor… yet it remains freely accessible, even for children with just a simple tablet or phone.”

The full scale of the crisis remains hidden from official statistics.

According to Caramben, suicides linked to these online games are often misclassified, with official autopsy reports citing “natural” causes like pulmonary oedema or heart failure to mask the true, underlying psychological and digital factors.

Government and Police Propose Solutions

In response to the growing threat, the Minister of Gender Equality and Family Welfare, Arianne Navarre-Marie, announced a new collaboration with the Ministry of Technology and Communication.

The initiative is aiming to protect minors on these opaque platforms and update current laws to address modern digital risks.

Constable Caramben has also proposed a technological solution: an intelligent SIM card that would notify parents when a child accesses sensitive or dangerous online content.

He cautioned that giving an unsupervised child a tablet is like “giving them a weapon.”

Source: Defi Media