It seems like parents can’t catch a break with internet predators lurking everywhere and if what is already out there isn’t enough, there is a new cause of alarm: Momo. Momo creeps into children’s YouTube videos unannounced and causes distress to both kids and their parents.
Originally the character that is named Momo which is an extremely deformed woman with thinning hair, a toothless smile and bulging eyes is a cropped version of a Japanese sculpture made 3 years ago by Midori Hayashi unrelated to the game. Apparently the image has been used as early as last year in India as a Whatsapp profile picture to send prank messages known as the Momo Challenge. If you or your child receive a text message from an unknown number using this avatar, it could be a joke from someone you know, or worse, a cyber criminal hiding behind a common challenge to achieve great harm to the user.
What is currently happening is that once you’re part of the game, you or those who sent you the request create disturbing videos which are being integrated in children’s cartoons on YouTube such as Peppa Pig or games like Minecraft or Fortnite, the last which allows the hacker to gain access to the user’s phone number. When contact has been made, the predator bombards children with ways in which they can harm themselves, like turning on the oven while everyone’s asleep, taking large amounts of medicine or sticking a fork in an electrical outlet. The threat is that if the child doesn’t obey or if he chooses to tell his parents, Momo will kill him and/or his parents, or threatened to be cast with an evil spell.
This matter is leading to terror amongst children and inflicting self harm, a reported 130 teen deaths in Russia, a case of suicide by hanging of a 12 year old girl in Argentina and a 16 year old boy, and another in Belgium a few months back. One child of 5 years old was threatening two of his schoolmates stating that he would stab them! Momo has now spread into the UK but the YouTube videos are accessible to all children worldwide.
For the time being what us as parents can do is block any number that uses the Momo photo as their Whatsapp profile avatar as well as report it. We must also turn off the continuous play option on YouTube so that we can select the videos our children can view, and constantly check up mid video to see what they is watching. If your child has seen Momo’s image without the self-harm orders, the image in itself is enough to disturb a child so chances are there might be bad dreams, bed wetting and sheer terror at the mention of her name or sight of the photo. What we can do is what one mother claimed she did is to tell our children that Momo is in prison and police are hunting her down, and on a lighter note, add some girly stickers and emojis to her face for her to seem less frightening and more virtual.
This is one of the many disturbing edits we see online targeting children, while we cannot change the world and those who prey on the innocent, we can shelter our kids as much as we can by constantly being aware of what they are exposed to, as well as any change in their behavior.
Maria Najem
Photo: froddo.com
