Suicide game targeting children. Some information on the latest Momo game which is doing the roun - Tuesday 26 February 2019

By Hartlepool Alert

Suicide game targeting children. Some information on the latest Momo game which is doing the rounds at the moment Is the Momo Challenge real, or an online hoax? A number of messages and warnings across the Internet describe an apparent phenomenon called the Momo Challenge. Many such warnings claim it is a game where children are tricked into performing increasingly violent acts including selfharm, sometimes even culminating in suicide. Many such warnings claim the game is spreading on social media apps including Facebook and WhatsApp. The game is usually illustrated by a wide eyed, dark haired woman with creepy facial features. AN EXAMPLE IS BELOW. FUMING IS NOT THE WORD, PASS THIS ON So apparently there is a new thing called the Momo challange where this head thing is telling kids on YouTube to do dangerous stupid stuff. It starts with it coming out of an egg then develops in to hide and seek then moves on to more fun stuff like , turn the oven on, take pills, how to stab someone etc Your children will tell you this isnt true as it threatens them not to say anything orels bad things will happen to family members. Apparently its leaked on to kids YouTube and comes on half way through a video to avoid being caught by adults and scares your kids in to saying nothing but doing dangerous stuff. This has to be one of the most horrendous things iv ever seen. The face of it is a joke but the concept is horrendous. Would hate for this to happen to any of my friends and family. Until YouTube can 100 guarantee this is not a thing, there will be no more YouTube in this house. Naturally the question many are asking especially concerned parents is whether the Momo Challenge is real, and should parents be alarmed? The reality is that the Momo Challenge could be considered a number of different things, and whether it is real or something to be worried about largely depends on what you consider it to actually be in the first place. Momo herself (or itself) isnt real. Its Internet folklore, rising up from the same murky corners of the Internet as other contemporary and passing crazes such as Slenderman and the very similar Blue Whale. The grotesque figure illustrating Momo is a sculpture, created by a Japanese special effects outfit called Link Factory. The figure is called Mother Bird, not Momo, and its got nothing to do with any sort of online challenge. Additionally, there is no evidence that Momo can magically hack your phone, force her image to appear on your device or do any other sort of digital trickery, as claimed by many reports. There are no reports of Momo (or anyone purporting to be Momo) creeping into peoples rooms, or committing acts of murder for those that do not obey the challenge. And there is no specific challenge either. There is no universal set list of tasks that those who engage in the challenge are told to do. In this sense at least, Momo isnt real. It isnt a person, a monster, or any kind of individual hell bent on luring children or teenagers into committing acts of violence. There is no Momo, other than what we and the Internet make Momo out to be. Taking a more pragmatic approach, while Momo isnt real in the above sense, the Momo Challenge is a real phenomenon, perhaps most accurately described as somewhere between a viral prank, a mediafuelled alarmist craze and a potential form of cyberbullying that should indeed be a genuine concern for parents. ITS 90 PRANK If you come across Momos image, or references to her, on the Internet, its likely to be the prank side youre seeing. Reports are commonplace that Momo has been spotted in Facebook groups, YouTube videos, in usergenerated games such as Minecraft and Roblox as well as other corners of cyberspace. But its unlikely that some obscure, ethereal being has infiltrated that part of the Internet looking for its next wouldbe victims. What youre seeing is what the Internet does best. The proliferation of a prank. Keeping a craze alive. Scaring children, and needlessly alarming parents. For example, one thing we persistently notice after debunking viral hacker warnings on social media is that in the direct aftermath of the viral hoax, we see a surge of new social media accounts appear using the same name as the alleged hacker. The new accounts are not hackers, of course. Rather just pranksters cashing in on the popularity of the hoax. MEDIA FUELLED CRAZE When it comes to clickbait, headlines dont get better when discussing panicinducing Internet challenges that have been ambiguously linked to teenage suicides. Its the sort of headline that attracts clicks like a flame attracts moths. Which is why youll find no shortage of media outlets breathlessly warning parents to keep their children safe from Momo. But in 2018, an Indian factcheck website investigated several cases of suicides in India and Argentinawhere local media had claimed the Momo Challenge was involved. In every case, police had either denied that the Momo Challenge played any part in the deaths and the link was erroneous, or that other more overriding factors (low school grades, depression, sexual abuse) had played a more significant role. A FORM OF CYBERBULLYING While media are often quick to report on vague links between suicides and Internet crazes, phenomena like the Momo Challenge can serve a real purpose in that they can demonstrate the inherent dangers of allowing children and young teens to use the Internet unsupervised. Whether its the dangers of being exposed to mature content, the dangers associated with connecting with strangers or the danger of cyberbullying, the Momo Challenge serves as a timely reminder that the Internet can be a dangerous place for both young and vulnerable minds. PROTECTING YOUR CHILDREN AS THEY USE THE INTERNET IS PARAMOUNT. This includes supervising what they see, blocking or preventing access to platforms that contain adult content, educating children on popular Internet threats, teaching them not to give away their personal information and perhaps most importantly encouraging an open dialogue where parents and children can be honest about what they encounter when using the Internet. It is this approach that will best protect kids when using the Internet, and that encompasses passing crazes like Momo, and whatever her successor will be. SO IS THE MOMO CHALLENGE REAL? Momo, nor her challenge are actually real, in the sense that they dont refer to a specific individual or a specific challenge (reports conflict greatly when people are asked to describe what the challenge actually is) and most references to Momo youll encounter online will exist purely to fuel the craze as opposed to cause any real damage. And when media outlets rush to find tenuous links between suicides and Internet crazes, wed always recommend taking those reports with a pinch of salt. But the Momo Challenge could be considered real if you take into account that children or teens may create or promote their own versions of it based on what theyve already heard about it, and they can subsequently use it to engage in cyberbullying or other forms of inappropriate online engagement. And its this permutation of Momo that parents should certainly be vigilant about. Our advice as always, is to supervise the games your kids play and be extremely mindful of the videos they are watching on YouTube. Ensure that the devices they have access to are restricted to age suitable content.

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