A 17-year-old student from Zhanjiang, in ‍south China's Guangdong Province, was taken into custody Tuesday accused of extremism after he used the "Blue Whale Game" - an online suicide challenge – to attract people to his chat group.

The "Blue Whale Game" began on Russian social network Vkontakte and encourages youngsters to kill themselves after participating in increasingly extreme daily tasks over 50 days.

The tasks include self-harming, watching horror movies and waking up at unusual hours. Its creator, 21-year-old Russian Philipp Budeikin, was charged on Tuesday with inciting at least 16 schoolgirls to commit suicide.

The detained Chinese student, surnamed Xu, admitted that he intentionally targeted players in the "Blue Whale Game", even posting "Blue Whale" self-mutilation pictures, to attract people to his video game-themed chat group. He has been detained on charges of violating criminal law by promoting extremism. 

Chinese authorities have kept a close eye on similar groups and organizations domestically, and have already cooperated with Internet companies to ban the game and copycat groups.

Tencent takes action to tackle 'Blue Whale' suicide chat groups

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