Momo challenge a nasty hoax

All you need to know about The Momo Challenge and Momo Suicide Game :  What is Momo Challenge?  What can you do about it?

Momo challenge a nasty hoaxPeople were still reeling from the tragic effects of deadly social media game “The Blue Whale” that was linked to a string of deaths and chaos, now there is another one called The Momo Challenge, going viral as sub-program of the Momo suicide game called Kill The Momo.

It has been reported to have already caused casualties in Columbia, Argentina and India by targeting the most vulnerable (the younger the better) and manipulating them into messaging the character on Whatsapp and thence get psychologically stimulated to self-harm and even suicide.

ORIGIN (MOMO DOLL)

In 2016, the Japanese artist called Keisuke Aiso of Link Factory (the special effects company) created the sculpture that went on display at the Vanilla Gallery in Tokyo, Japan.

The sculpture’s photograph taken at the gallery made its way to Instagram and subsequently became an urban myth associated with a Whatspp contact number and name called Momo, on Spanish social portal. Later on, the picture was seen under a caption “creepy” on Reedit – another American platform and went viral across the internet spectrum.

GAME

Momo game is adorning simulation arcades of many app stores, in which the players are encouraged to assume themselves to be “trained contract killers as well as humanity’s last hope against the rising clan of horrifying, wicked and brutal Momo”,

People objecting to the whole concept seem to have been motivated by suspicious description that goes “ If you don’t kill, Momo will find and kill you” and “ Momo has moved to the internet and doing cybercrime”

The recent update of the “Kill The Momo” horror game has been reported to be as latest as 1st of march 2019 by a developer based in Mumbai, india.

CHALLENGE

The momo challenge involves daring people (particularly children and teenagers) to communicate on unknown numbers that are being circulated online, specifically on facebook. According to reports these numbers are unconnected and operating individually, like Buenos Aires, Argentina case where the 12-year old victim was texting someone called Momo on whatsapp right before she was found dead.

The alleged teenage behind that number intended to upload the conversation with victim on social media. Once the contact is established, controllers behind those numbers welcome users with grotesque images and mild tasks at first which escalates pretty quickly into sinister orders of self-harming and in some cases even suicide by jumping off the rooftops or slitting wrists followed by menacing threats if users show reluctance.

Momo Challenge

The disturbing character has also been appearing on YouTube, especially hacking into children oriented content, apparently out of nowhere.

Just as it was warned about recently by a prominent Pakistani journalist Meher Bokhari in her tweet saying “Please be careful, the momo character appears out of nowhere and urges your children to do dangerous things” (you can reach Meher Bokhari on her twitter handle @meherbokhari ).

In random kids rhymes or cartoon this scary face pops up for minute or half with illustrative depiction of dreadful tasks it lines out, concluding with a threat to visit if viewer fails to perform.

WHAT TO DO

While it should have been prohibited to begin with for children to surf internet or get used to YouTube cartoon videos, the reality is quite contrary. As consequences we are not left with many options, so the least we can do to take precautionary measures is to never leave our children unsupervised when they browse through or simply just watch videos on internet.

Better still set up parental control that monitors your child’s online activity. Most important of all, and it cannot be stressed enough how important it is to talk to your children about every issue they come to you with, however small or insignificant it may seem to you. Talk to your children, educate them, advise them, explain to them the good as well the bad of society.