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Have you guys heard about the Momo challenge?

It's a video that pops up on Kids You Tube when they are watching videos or playing some online games.

A scary face comes up telling the kids how to hurt themselves and that if they tell their parents Momo will kill their parents.

I saw this posted on my FB by other parents who had discovered their kids had seen it and been acting weird/scared since.

Well today my kids all came home with a notice from the principal about it. DD was crying. Said they all talked about it at school. I had already asked them if they had seen it but they didn't because we dont allow unsupervised internet use at home. And the school has restrictions for online use.

This has lead to some good conversations about Internet safety and that we don't keep secrets from our parents and that they can tell us anything and everything. Poor DS is freaked out. DD is upset but is talking through her fears and why she's upset.

Man this world is so fucked up and scary!!!

I don't know how the "reporting" feature works exactly, but whatever those videos are, they should be reported immediately!

YouTube clip about this issue:

WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR | "Momo Challenge" Being Disguised as Kids Videos (by Fawning Girl Feb 27, 2019)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNs_FsRSKM4

ETA: I just checked and the "REPORT" option is on the same line as the thumbs-up/Like and thumbs-down/Dislike buttons. You have to click on the three dots next to where you share or save vids for later viewing.

[This message edited by Cephastion at 5:19 PM, February 27th (Wednesday)]

Some Peppa Pig and Fortnight videos on "YouTube, FB, and YouTube KIDS" are apparently affected according to the YouTube clip I am listening to about this issue that I just shared.

The clip was posted on YouTube today on Feb.27, btw.

[This message edited by Cephastion at 5:21 PM, February 27th (Wednesday)]

The FB post I saw didn't allow.me to share it so I took a screen shot and reposted so I could share it here.

I haven't seen this myself. My kids don't use the you tube for kids. And they don't play any online games. Apparently it popped up on a Pippa pig game.

I'm sure it's been reported as it's all over social media and the school sent home a notice about it.

I miss Mayberry...

Rascal Flatts | Mayberry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siqs6ZF0LtI

This was on the news this morning. And another online challenge I read about this morning is for kids (14-15yrs) to go missing for two days. This one comes after hearing about a kid not far from us disappearing and then posting to his social media that he's screwed up and will make it all better. They are reposting his post in hopes that someone can recognize the background and they can find him.

I know not all people are bad but it sure seems the world has gone to shit.

I sometimes feel the world is going to hell in a hand basket.

I know not all people are bad but it sure seems the world has gone to shit.

I've said this before but the older I get, the more I mean it. If I was of child bearing age today, there's no way I'd have them. I worry about my youngest in ways I never worried about my oldest. The world she'll be going out into in a couple years just terrifies me.

I don't know how to reconcile the fears I have for my children. Kids go missing daily now and it's even gotten bad with adults. What can a parent do to protect their kids? We talk about safety often but in the moment will they remember to control their fear and fight back?

DD told me last night that one of her. Lassmates told her In Private that she didn't want to live on this planet anymore. They kid is in grade four and doesn't want to LIVE ON THIS PLANET. Omg! All we could do is inform the school of what was said and hope they take it as a serious thing.

Slight TJ:

The 48 hour challenge has been out since I think 2016 but only recently went viral. It is fake. It's not a real thing. At least that is how it has started. It was started by kids as a way of trolling adults into thinking it's a real thing. Similar to the Tide pod challenge.

No one is actually doing the 48 hour challenge. That's not to say that kids think it's a real thing or decide to do it anyway. Most think it's dumb and not real. As of now it's not some widespread thing that all these kids are doing. I'm sure someone could dig up a case or two. But the news has made it sound like some kind of epidemic.

I don't have kids and am kind of glad I don't. I can't imagine trying to raise and protect a child in this world.

Well I hope no kids doing any of the "challenges" out there.

It makes for a difficult time protecting ones kids. Even if the majority aren't doing it, it only takes one kid to do it to get hurt.

I talked with my youngest (6) last night about the Momo challenge. She said she's never seen it. But after we chatted for it for literally less than one full minute, she couldn't get it and the scary picture out of her head.

I'm with ya. The world has gone to shit and makes me a nervous wreck for my kids.

I heard that it had been seen more overseas and in the US instead of Canada. My kids don't have access to the things it was in, so they hadn't seen it. But they did have a discussion about it at school and Dd said many of the kids cried. The face itself is scary.

As an adult it's so hard to get to the bottom of which challenges are real and what's the media whipping up hysteria. There's so much misinformation and clickbait out there. I can't imagine how much more frightening this is for a parent.

My niece is 9 now. When I first met her she was 3 or 4 or and her parents would routinely hand her a phone and allow her to play games or watch videos. It made me uncomfortable at the time but now it's worse. Her parents have had to reel it back in and are now having to decide how to explain the dangers without overly upsetting her.

I have another friend who has had their kids see frightening things in clips disguised as Peppa Pig. She's always sits with them when they watch clips,but pointed out that a lot of parents who can't afford tv channels or reputable streaming services its not uncommon to stick on a playlist of pirated kids shows on youtube and leave the room. Scary stuff.

Going back to the orignal momo challenge (the text/whatsapp messages) it seems that has been exaggerated, the issue now is youtube/facebook etc getting on top of the disturbing videos

How do you know the difference between clickbait and exaggerations and stuff that's a real problem?

The internet has taken the normal peer pressure crap we all dealt with and turned it extreme. Makes it even more difficult to parent the kids.

I have never agreed with or have ever allowed any tv videos or electronics to play babysitter to my kids. And I'm glad I have raised them that way.

Dragn, you can Google something to see if it's fake or not. Snopes does a great job of debunking click bait. But the first limit test in my book is whether you got the information from FB because that place is a hot bed for bad information and click bait.

There are a lot of news articles coming out that say this is fake and Youtube isn't finding any scary images mixed in with videos that involve Momo. If you see something, report the video.

There's something else that bothers me about what's being passed around. Calling it "The Momo Challenge" doesn't make any sense. A challenge is something you do. These kids aren't doing any sort of challenge. They're seeing a scary image and letting their imaginations run wild. And if you look up the image either by Googling Momo or reverse google searching the image, it's from a statue in an art museum in Japan. It wasn't made to be anything that scared children. It's based off of Japanese ghost folklore.

I agree that any social media isn't the place to get hard facts but it's been reported on the news now and schools are sending home notices, If nothibg else than to alert parents to ways of protecting kids and discussing internet safety.

Overall the response to this is good in that it's making sure people are aware of the dangers of being online and how those dangers can affect kids.

Teaching kids not to talk to strangers or Give out personal.information is ok but in today's online world they may think they are talking to another kid when in fact its a child predator looking to gain trust and information.

More and more parents are handing over the phones and electronics without a second thought when they need to really think about it.

And trying not to violate this forum but I had to put my foot down with WH about the things he was viewing on his phone. DD would ask to use his phone and I feared she may stumble upon stuff not appropriate. She wasn't using it to get online but there was still a chance she could click on the browser and see.

I have never understood the point of such stupid actions...

I agree that any social media isn't the place to get hard facts but it's been reported on the news now and schools are sending home notices, If nothibg else than to alert parents to ways of protecting kids and discussing internet safety.

Overall the response to this is good in that it's making sure people are aware of the dangers of being online and how those dangers can affect kids.

Hey DragonHeart, I just remembered the other day when you and I lamented along with others about the 911 calls that were generated by people saying they didn't want to be disturbed in the night by child abduction alerts...well at least this thing is getting a lot of voluntary whistleblowing from average folks all over the place!

At least people are caring enough about this issue that there is a lot of noise being made over it, instead of everyone just complaining or else completely ignoring and staying silent about it.

Silver lining of sorts.

Silver lining from sure! It's opened a dialogue that is very much needed in today's technogical world. It opened discussions with my own children beyond just the dont talk to strangers thing.