Yesterday, I was introduced to the Momo craze via a school letter. Do you know about Momo? Momo is an internet craze which uses the image of a sculpture to frighten kids. The idea alone is disturbing. Being a parent of 6 children, I try to keep tabs on all sorts of internet and mobile phone crazes. I know the fact that kids owning mobile phones is the norm nowadays. As useful as these devices are, they also come with dangers.
A twisted artistic image of a YoKai
Many Nintendo fans will be familiar with the term Yokai. In Japenese folklore, a Yokai is a supernatural being or demon. Momo is a disturbing artistic vision of such a creature. First images of Momo appeared on the web in 2016 via Instagram, and it seems some have used them o create a culture of fear amongst vulnerable internet users. What’s more, others have seen fit to create social media accounts which are used to frighten inquisitive children into silence by threatening them and their family.
Momo of course is a fake character which in of itself can harm no one.However, the Momo craze is being used by cruel individuals to target vulnerable members of our society, primarily children.
How do they go about it?
As an adult reading this you might wonder how these evil minds can influence our children. This is how they work. Contact usually begins when children make contact with Momo accounts via social media. Once contact is made, reports suggest threats are made to encourage kids to self-harm. But a further disturbing element is that anyone with a mobile can use this craze to bully and intimidate. Any person with a mobile can create a false Momo account via social media or even a false mobile profile, to create the impression that Momo is real and able to contact others.
Also, be aware that these Momo messages can be hidden in Youtube clips of the kind young children watch on your tablet. There have been reports of Momo turning up while children watch their favourite TV shows like Peppa Pig and Paw Patrol.
This means parents must be aware of what their child watches, and how and who children give contact details too. Of course, we could mommy-coddle children and strip them of their phones and access to the internet. As parents though, we know that such measures aren’t possible in the 21st century, and so, the best means to protect our children is to educate them and keep tabs on their phone and internet usage.
Parents are the boss
Of course, I can only tell you how I try to handle things like this as you will have your own rules. But I always feel that until a child comes of age, parents are the boss. So my advice would be to make sure mobiles are distributed and used according to the terms you set for them. Get to grips with the parental functions of a device such as age, web- and app restrictions etc.
If children need access to sites like Youtube for school work, give them access to your account. This will help you to keep an eye on usage, watch lists and so on without accessing their devices. Certain apps will also enable parents to vet text messages, web sites and other content such as installed apps. Parental options are limitless, but it’s also important to build trust with your child. I tend to lock up everything (digitally speaking) if they break that trust. However, my preferred option is lay ground rules and trust them to abide by them.
It’s important to teach them to share details only with people they trust, and if they should receive calls from unknown callers, reject them. Make sure their personal contact details are restricted via sites and apps such as What’s App and Facebook.
So overall: as parents you must be self-aware about internet dangers and take time to instruct and teach children about current issues.
I know this isn’t a typical LadiesGamers article, but it has to do with the misuse of our much loved handheld devices. Being a parent of 6 children, these are issues which are close to my heart. And after all, us parents must be ready to support each other, and I would love to read your views and suggestions in the comments below.
Hi Jonah, thanks for sharing!
I hadn’t heard of it by I googled it and it is active in the Netherlands to.
I will inform my sisters who have children.
It’s really sick to encourage kids to hurt themselves, but especially the part where they encourage kids to become the ‘tormentor’.
Thanks again for sharing.
Hmm, reading some more about it…
I’m not sure schools and the media are doing the right thing by spreading the warning (that it’s a Hoax).
I would recommend people to read some articles on the internet on this subject, before panicking or talking to your kids.
Hi Ronja,
I tried to write from a informative level rather than seeking to petrify everybody. Internet safety is a big issue, and even though a lot on the web about Momo is hype, kids are chatting about it at school, and some have even tried to dial Momo profiles via various social media outlets. Even hackers.are using it.
It’s not.easy to keep children safe these days.
Your right Jonah. Sorry, I didn’t mean to criticize.
I do think it’s important for parents to know what’s going on online.
Of course you didn’t criticize Ronja! We always love a good discussion on the site.
Until Jonah brought it up I had heard of it, but hadn’t really looked into it. On some level you just can’t imagine kids being goaded into these things by nothing more than a puppet. But that’s the adult me talking, lol.
I never thought you were critical Ronja. I thought long and hard about it before writing but decided to do so in the end. I’m dubious about stories of YouTube clips being hacked, but it isn’t hard to upload videos with sinister intentions.
Your comment was much appreciated.
I talked to my 8-year-old son about this last night as he is an avid YouTube Kids watcher. I was a little taken aback because he knew exactly what I was talking about when I asked him if he’s ever heard of “Momo”. I just encouraged him to turn off the video if he ever sees Momo pop up and to let me know right away. 🙁
Good plan, Serena. We purposely didn’t put the horrible image in the article, it’s getting more attention then needed already, right?
That’s a good plan Serena. Does your child use a tablet or mobile to watch YouTube.
it’s not real it’s just some jerks created like photo shop this thing to scare little kids so its not real it’s ok little kids
This has totally wigged me out as an adult scrolling through social media. Thank you for the background. It’s a little less unsettling knowing where it comes from. What a horrible thing to do to children. Is Youtube removing the videos? They were responsive when people complained about The Nun jumpscare trailers from last year. Unexpected jump scares (such as cutting from a children’s video to Moma) could be dangerous for anyone with heart conditions.
Hi CJ,
It’s nothing to worry about. It was blown out of proportion by the media but it’s good in a sense in that it has made people more aware about online safety. But as mentioned above it’s possible for folk to be targeted outside of social media via mobile phones. It’s so easy to create false profiles now that anyone with a mobile can cause havoc these days.
I had to have a long talk with my mother, who became scared after watching a news article about the MoMo challenge. All the fear mongering about this is annoying to me. I liked that Jonah didn’t attempt to frighten anyone. I reassured my mother that her great brands were protected as best they can be from this sort of thing. My internet router has been set to stop connections to known porno sites, and any other bad things that I don’t want them to see. Any devices that allow browsing are set to require a parental password to access any online content, and they never get to watch YouTube without an adult present. This MoMo doesn’t mess around!