How can so many agencies (public and media) spread this nonsense, not one of them, police included have checked the facts of the story before advising schools.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47393510

Seemingly the youtube videos are real enough but as you say the back story is not.

As the article concludes, maybe the focus should be on understanding what all these apps do and how to correctly suprvise and educate your child on the internet and its use.

You seem shocked by this. The media love a hype story and will run with it.

What I am amazed about is how many are actually admitting it’s untrue.

Seemingly the youtube videos are real enough but as you say the back story is not.

The date stamp on most of them are around the time the hype started, MOMO has been around for about a year.

Yeah, my child’s primary school sent us an urgent e-mail warning us. I did what any self respecting adult would do and went off immediately to contact Momo to receive some challenges/death threats – assuming it was an app or somesuch. It wasn’t an app, I couldn’t find valid contact details. If I can’t find any valid contact details for Momo then nor can my kids.

I did what any self respecting adult would do

Me too I deleted it as spam.

Had a “serious” chat with my two this morning. But even before I knew of the hoax I told them that MOMO should be thought of as similar to a chain mail or killer clowns and that the media is hyping the story.

And yet I had an S2 pupil come into reg, saying they’d received a MOMO challenge and it freaked her out so much she couldn’t sleep.

Unfortunately it is very tricky to actually check the facts on.

From what I’ve been able to gather by digging about a bit:

– It’s mostly just a creepypasta, probably originating on 4chan.
– The stuff about it appearing in Fortnite and other games is (obviously) bollocks.
– Some bellends, likely 4chan, have spliced in Momo and other nasty stuff (like Filthy Frank) into kids videos (Peppa Pig, Splatoon, Fortnite) that have appeared on Kids YouTube.
– The stories about WhatsApp and self-harm are tenuous at best.

Snopes has a pretty decent article on it:

How Much of a Threat Is the Purported ‘Momo Challenge’ Suicide Game?

The best quote was from Dr Dawn Branley Bell, “a cyberpsychology expert” who said: “It isn’t hard to imagine that if social media existed in the 1990s, British tabloids would run articles about ‘the terrifying challenge’ that was eight-year-olds saying ‘Bloody Mary’ three times into the bathroom mirror”

Spot on.

Our kids school did this and the wife was all worked up about it along with the supposed backstory that it had been linked to several kids committing suicide and harming themselves. I said I thought it was BS, but was severely cut down by the wife. She then ‘debriefed’ the kids who then both had a sleepless night after having nightmares about it. All settled back down now but I will be a little smug tonight when I tell her it was all a hoax. I’ll probably be in the doghouse for being right all along, but it will be worth it. Not often I get one over her.

This is where Facebook is bad. So many in my feed are posting this crap and their followers with kids are getting in a panic.

One has a flyer from their school which does explain that there’s no substance to the stories, but still gets alarmist about the potential for scary videos. Though I suppose that’s true, but then there’s probably far worse kids can already see anyway.

It’ll be chip wrappers tomorrow

Momo looks like a middle aged Tweenie who stayed up too late drinking red wine wondering where it all went wrong

And yet I had an S2 pupil come into reg, saying they’d received a MOMO challenge and it freaked her out so much she couldn’t sleep.

As it says in the Snopes article: “Experts say even if actual threats from Momo aren’t real, the rumors alone can be frightening for kids and can encourage teens to participate in risky dares.”

The “danger” of all this hype is that now kids are scaring each other with Momo challenges. Even the just the image itself is fairly disturbing for young kids.

potential for scary videos. Though I suppose that’s true, but then there’s probably far worse kids can already see anyway.

The danger there is that scary videos made it on to YouTube Kids which is meant to be a kid-safe app that is separate from the wild west of normal YouTube.

Google describe it as “A safer online experience for kids: We use a mix of filters, user feedback and human reviewers to keep the videos in YouTube Kids family friendly.” but add the caveat that “no system is perfect and inappropriate videos can slip through, so we’re constantly working to improve our safeguards and offer more features to help parents create the right experience for their families.”

Which is a total cop out. I don’t think many parents read that as “It is quite possible that halfway through an episode of Peppa Pig it’ll suddenly jumpcut to a scary guy giving you instructions on how best to cut your wrists”

The danger there is that scary videos made it on to YouTube Kids

99% appeared after the hype.

All settled back down now but I will be a little smug tonight when I tell her it was all a hoax.

Hoax or not, it still terrified your children. Maybe tone down the smugness…

Hoax or not, it still terrified your children. Maybe tone down the smugness…

His kids haven’t even seen it.

99% appeared after the hype.

Which doesn’t change the fact that they exist.

Yes, it’s copy-cat behaviour, but doen’t change the fact that kids are still seeing them.

His kids haven’t even seen it.

Chances are they have now, because the image itself is everywhere thanks to these warnings 🤦🏻‍♂️

My approach was just to describe it to my daughter (8), explain it was just idiots trying to scare kids, that it was nothing to be frightened of and reinforce that she could always tell me if she saw it or anything else freaky.

Which doesn’t change the fact that they exist.

They’ve existed for 3 years, longer than I first thought, the hoax meant more people seen them. If the media, parents and schools bothered to check there would have been less exposed from those on bandwagon.

Exactly GrahamS.

My kids just thought it was funny that the school believed the story.

The origin of MOMO.

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/momo

Hoax or not, it still terrified your children. Maybe tone down the smugness…

His kids haven’t even seen it.

Your point being? His wife heard about it and proactively warned the children. Whilst meant responsibly it actually proved counter productive. It still scared them without them actually seeing it. Still not sure that smugness is the appropriate approach.

There is a nugget of good advice in all this nonsense (aside from things like the importance of critical thinking, not believing everything you read on the internet, and recognising False Authority Syndrome when you see it).

Regardless of whether there was any truth in the Momo hoax or not, there’s a very real risk for kids from anywhere on the Internet. Parents need to educate their children and monitor / block what they’re exposed to online.

And to do that, most parents will need to educate themselves. The whole Web 2.0 / social media thing is a relatively new thing and most parents haven’t grown up with it. But if it manages to prompt parents into looking into online safety with a little more of a critical eye, maybe talk to people who actually know what they’re talking about rather than expecting a teacher or a policeman to have the first clue about Internet security, then some good may have ultimately come from this.

(I mean, I doubt it, blindly forwarding stupid chain letter scare stories is older then the World Wide Web itself and we still haven’t learned. But one can hope.)

But one can hope

Good luck.

Your point being?

Doesn’t work on his iPad anyway.

I think it is pretty tricky putting the blame on parents for not evaluating it properly though.

Most parents are not that familiar with internet culture and wouldn’t have the first clue what a meme or a creepypasta is. And even if they were rightly dubious of the hysterical social media warnings and googled it, then they would be rewarded with headlines from trusted news sources appearing to confirm it! I saw scaremongering stories in the BBC, Independent, Telegraph, CBS, and Sky News. And those news stories themselves were referencing warnings issued by the police.

“False Authority Syndrome” is a good description. But unfortunately there isn’t a real authority to turn to.

Parents need to educate their children and monitor / block what they’re exposed to online.

For me education is key. Blocking will never ever work 100% in practise. Frankly if my kids haven’t found a way to bypass my internet security by the time their teenagers then I’ll be disappointed in them. I already busted my 8 year old after she sneakily added her fingerprint to the Touch ID on my Apple account so she could bypass restrictions there.

The Daily Hate have probably done more for getting these “challenges” into the public consciousness than anyone else. Not long ago, it was Horror Peppa Pig – don’t worry, it’s a Guardian Link Where some folks had made zombie versions of Peppa Pig and Paw Patrol and got them on You Tube.

If the papers (rags) never pushed these stories for the hystericals (see Daily Mail comments and “my child was banging her head against the wall after seeing Peppa deflower Daddy pig” stories) it would just be another thing that died a death, never to be seen again and the morons behind trying to make another Slenderman would just move on to their next attempt at successful creepypasta.

Its sad that nothings sacred, but as someone said, it’s like Bloody Mary from years ago.

For me education is key. Blocking will never ever work 100% in practise. Frankly if my kids haven’t found a way to bypass my internet security by the time their teenagers then I’ll be disappointed in them.

No arguments with any of that TBH. Technology can help but it really shouldn’t be viewed as a panacea.

I’ve been reading a bunch of stuff about MOMO, and slender man, but creepypasta? That’s a new one on me!

The origin of MOMO.

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/momo

Oh great! Thanks for the even freakier pictures of Momo, will sleep well tonight lol.

creepypasta? That’s a new one on me!

Think “internet ghost story” and you are pretty much there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creepypasta

My first step with stuff like this is ask the 9 year old! Seriously the kids are massively more aware of this stuff than the media and schools give credit for.

I’m another subscriber to the openness over control approach.

There are two rules in our house that apply to all internet activity.

Rule 1 – there is no punishment for genuine mistakes online if you tell us asap
Rule 2 – if anything looks even slightly iffy you tell us straight away this gets you ‘Rule 1’ protection

We have explained that some people online are nasty and some might try to persuade you to do stupid stuff that is bad for you. The eldest knows about the suicide / self harm stuff.

This is the “stranger danger” of the 21st century. We want them to have the tools to stay safe.

I’ve just seen it, no sleep for me tonight. . . . .

@GrahamS – thanks, I had intended to google it, but it got a bit late and I forgot. I’m familiar with a great many of the subjects, but this is the first time I’ve come across the actual term!

@MarkBrewer – that’s from Corrie, is it not? Very well spotted on someone’s part, the similarity is creepy…😁

Oh, I thought this thread was going to be about steering wheels.

I was a bit disappointed at the lack of motorsport equipment too.

Countzero, yes it’s Gail. I actually think momo is less creepy. I don’t know what all the fuss is about, kids have it easy these days compared to when I was younger. . . .