MOMO Warning

I went into school today after my son came home crying and couldn't sleep last night because of Momo. Apparently, his classmates were talking about it and told him Momo was going to contact him and tell him to kill himself. My son is quite an anxious person anyway and got quite taken in by it.

What the heck is MOMO?

This has received a lot of attention in the past 24-48 hours. I told my adult children about it in case any of the GC came across it. Everyone is horrified at the thought of this image encouraging children to self-harm, for example. There is some evidence, however, that it is not as widespread as suggested and too much panic and discussion of it may itself cause more harm. Probably general discussion with youngsters about online safety and telling parents/guardians about any communications from someone they don't know is better than mentioning MOMO itself or letting them see articles about it.

I discovered about 6 years ago that YouTube videos of nursery rhymes and Peppa Pig had frightening content and never leave my grandson with the iPad on his own for even a few minutes as he knows when the video stops how to search for another one that looks fun but may be completely the opposite. As sunseeker says, “sick minds”

It's a disgrace. Many parents don't know what their children are watching. Like Rosina, I despair at how things are going.

This is the link to a reputable site for checking all those 'true' stories that come around

www.snopes.com/news/2019/02/26/momo-challenge-suicide-game/

By coincidence my GS mentioned this last evening - he is adult - and was horrified to be shown a video at work from an equally horrified colleague. Yes - what minds these people must have, it is unbelievable that they would want to terrify children and promote such horrors. I do despair at times.

www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/feb/28/viral-momo-challenge-is-a-malicious-hoax-say-charities?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

I have not heard about this.

Marvellous as the internet is, bad people can worm their way in anywhere it would seem and make life scary for others. To do such a thing to children is despicable.

I know my GC are allowed time on You Tube children's sites occasionally.

I do hope site owners will work with the police to track down these vile people who are poor excuses for human beings.

It really is frightening.I put a Peppa Pig video on YouTube on my phone for my 3 year old granddaughter to watch while we were stuck in motorway traffic.Luckily I was sitting in the back with her as suddenly Peppa was in the dentists chair with blood dripping from her face,it was horrific.We have now downloaded a number of children’s programmes onto the iPad that she can watch if need be.The thought of MOMO is terrifying.

It's a truly evil world we now live in.

I have messaged this to my daughter so that she knows about it. (Although I'm pretty sure she reads Mumsnet) www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-47359623

This is horrifying.

My 13 year old grandson and his mates love watching Peppa Pig on sleepovers. They have their own sense of humour regarding it.

And he loves you-tube.

What to do?!

My daughter made me aware of this last week when I had the little boys for half term.

They all have tablets or iPads and we use them a lot for googling things and playing games and yes- they have access to children's YouTube to watch cartoons with us.

I'm horrified at this MOMO thing. Not only is it scary to look at but what sick, twisted moron conceives of doing things like this telling children to kill themselves etc.

The issue with it is that these people are making videos of things like Pepper Pig and then as you're watching what seems to be an authentic cartoon this vile stuff flashes up. There's no way of knowing if it will happen or not.

I feel that the service providers should be doing much, much more about this type of thing which is not a one off .

We have now taken to selecting a video and then running it fast forward all the way through before letting the children watch and then marking it as safe so we can find it again.

Thankfully the schools are aware and acting accordingly.

I remember an elderly chap when internet first came about shaking his head and saying 'The genie is out of the bottle'

Not having grandchildren I was unaware of this - what kind of sick mind makes these videos and what equally sick people spread them.

mycat I understood that the reason for swift police warning was that youngsters with good firewalls / parental controls were still seeing this stuff. Basically telling them to harm other kids or momo would get them.

There is also an app going round which can send annoymous messages. This is called Askip.
On Monday our 15 year old granddaughter was sent such a vile message asking to meet, if she was a virgin, asking to meet for sex, this message contained information of where she went to school, what her sister and female cousin were called. Thank goodness she told her mum.
The police have been involved and now we have found out it was a boy in her school who asked her out which she had declined as she has a boyfriend.

Sorry mycatisahacker but it is a problem.
Firstly youtube is available on the ipad.. and children ipads or tablets can be set up with parental controls so that they can only watch childrens programmes such as Peppa pig.
This is where the issue is.

Even if the child is watching with a parent it flashes up so fast there is not much time for the parent to react.

Even good old TVs can also show youtube.

As I have already said
Schools have also reported a problem with MOMO

The suggestion that children under 12 should have only supervised access to internet is a separate issue.
I just want GNers with grandchildren to be aware of the danger MOMO.
Hopefully it will be sorted asap

MOMO is also problem for 12 years and over.

Children under 12 shouldn’t be on the internet unsupervised.

Get them an iPad if needed or good old TV. No need for U Tube.

Then no problem