We’ve all heard about it by now – the ‘Momo Challenge’, a disturbing, so-called online ‘suicide game’ that allegedly targets children using social messaging platforms.
The game’s existence has not been confirmed, and it looks likely that the whole thing might be comparable to an old-fashioned ‘chain letter’, relying on fear, scaremongering and a ‘whisper’ effect to gain traction. There have even been unsubstantiated reports that ‘Momo’ has ‘hacked’ programmes like Peppa Pig and the game Fortnite using YouTube Kids, something the channel denies. Meanwhile, charities have called it “fake news”, the Guardian reports.
[Read More: The ‘Momo Challenge’ Debunked – 6 Tips For Parents]
What isn’t in any doubt is how terrifying the image associated with the ‘game’ is to kids – which one mum found out the hard way.
Elli Spicer asked her two children Honey and Ronnie – who turned five in January – whether they’d heard of, or seen, ‘Momo’ – represented by an image of a bug-eyed, black-haired woman with a horribly distorted smile.
The character was originally a doll created by a special effects company in Japan, and was probably never meant to be seen by kids, because it’s enough to give them nightmares.
Elli wrote on Facebook that she was “absolutely devastated” when her children admitted they’d seen the horrifying image “loads of times”.
“Four weeks ago I was called into Ronnie’s school because he’d said to two children he was going to “stab them” – I was devastated and it’s been dealt with accordingly,” Elli wrote. “He’s been wetting the bed and he’s been coming into my bedroom in the early hours because of scary dreams! I am absolutely gutted, I honestly thought my children were quite sheltered. This freak scares me, let alone my kids.”
Elli, who began taking action by uninstalling apps on her children’s tablets, activating extreme parental controls and banning YouTube entirely, went one step further. She decided to alter the image of ‘Momo’ to make it far less scary for her kids... and she did it so successfully that it’s almost cute.
It seems to be working. Elli wrote: “Ronnie’s had more good days at school than bad, hasn’t woken once complaining of a bad dream and has been dry for almost a week!”
So there we go. If you’re worried about the effects of the awful ‘Momo’, consider going heavy on the Snapchat filters. Then perhaps we’ll all be able to show ‘Momo’ up for what it really is – a very, very bad joke.