Ghaziabad sisters' deaths bring Korean digital content, gaming addiction under scrutiny

The deaths of three minor sisters in Ghaziabad have renewed concerns over online gaming addiction, excessive screen use and the growing influence of Korean popular culture on adolescents.

The sisters — aged 12, 14 and 16 — died in the early hours of February 4 after jumping from the balcony of their ninth-floor flat. Police said the girls were heavily addicted to mobile phones and an online Korean task-based interactive game, and appeared to be “influenced” by Korean digital content.

Investigators said the incident followed objections from the parents over the girls’ prolonged phone use. The siblings had reportedly been playing the game for nearly three years and had stopped attending school for almost the same period after failing academically.

Chetan Kumar, the father of the girls, said that the academic setback “made them feel embarrassed and increasingly withdrawn”. He said he was unaware of the nature of the game, later described to him as involving a series of instructions that players were expected to follow. “If I had known that such tasks existed, no father would ever allow his children to be part of it,” he said.

Mental health experts cautioned against viewing gaming alone as the cause, pointing instead to a combination of factors. These include isolation, blurred boundaries between the digital and real worlds, and the way adolescents form identities around online platforms.

Forensic psychologist Deepti Puranik said addiction is closely linked to how the brain responds to rewards. “Games give pleasure to these kids through rewards or appreciation. Gaming directly may not cause an individual to take extreme steps, but it can lead to a lot of these factors that can make an individual’s life chaotic and uncontrollable,” she told PTI.

She added that teenagers often tie their sense of self to their performance in games. “Their entire psyche starts moving around their competency in that game rather than in real life. When you take that away, the identity as an individual collapses,” she said, warning that this can result in emotional isolation and drastic behaviour.

Vandana Prakash, clinical psychologist and senior consultant at Max Superspeciality Hospital, Vaishali, said excessive online gaming pulls children away from school, outdoor activities and social interaction. “It also keeps the person away from social interaction, making him or her isolated and lonely. Lack of a productive life and being away from the real world often affects mental health, making them suicidal,” she said.

The incident has drawn comparisons with the Blue Whale challenge that surfaced globally in 2017. The 50-day online challenge, believed to have originated in Russia, involved progressively harmful tasks and was linked to over 130 deaths across Russia and parts of Central Asia.

Clinical psychologist Shweta Sharma said children often enter such games out of curiosity and peer pressure. “At each stage of the game, there is a constant need to prove yourself. These children usually cannot understand proper emotional regulation. They have a strong need to be seen and acknowledged,” she said.

She noted that adolescents do not yet have a fully developed prefrontal cortex, which governs decision-making and impulse control. “The addiction level is high in this age group because they are still under development. They can’t differentiate between reality and perception,” Sharma said.

Another aspect flagged by police was the sisters’ fascination with Korean popular culture. Kumar said the girls often spoke about wanting to go to Korea. Sharma linked such obsessions to emotional gaps at home. “Parents don’t have time. Emotional availability is definitely not there. We are providing children with all the facilities without understanding whether they are able to handle it or not,” she said.

She pointed out that Korean series and games often centre on themes of friendship, love and belonging, which can feel more “real” to adolescents than their immediate surroundings. Sharma referred to a 2024 incident in Maharashtra, where three Class 8 girls attempted to travel to Korea to meet their favourite band BTS, despite having no passports or money.

“For them, that was their reality,” Sharma said. “The real versus reel is a basic challenge.”

Experts emphasised that regulating phone use should go beyond restrictions, calling for transparent conversations within families and closer emotional engagement to create a healthier environment for children and teenagers.