The Momo challenge is potentially life-threatening and you should make sure your kids steer clear of it.
Scary, frightening… a lot of goose bumps appear when thinking about how terrifying its effects could be. The image itself of Momo is really disturbing. It’s of a bug-eyed girl with matted hair and wraithlike limbs. a Japanese company, Keisuke Aisawa, actually used it as a prop in horror films.
This sculpture was displayed at a show in Tokyo in August 2016. The photos were then posted on Instagram and r/creepy from Reddit unfortunately took over from there.
So, what’s the deal with Momo now? How could it affect your kids?
In July of 2018, Momo landed on YouTube. According to the video, kids were directed to text Momo’s number. In turn, kids received dangerous tasks like watching a horror movie to self-harm and suicide. Failure to complete tasks were said to result in their personal info being leaked or threats of violence.
Yes, unfortunately, there have been reports of young kids committing suicide due to the disgusting prank.
The bottom line is it’s bad news and you should keep you kids away from it.
How can you ensure your child is safe from Momo?
Talk to your children.
Sit down and have one of those stern chats that you as a parent should. Have an honest discussion about how being online comes along with not listening to others, not talking to strangers, and to be safe, go on well-known channels on YouTube or other sites. If something looks or feels weird, stop right away.
Set up parental controls on YouTube.
- You can do this by going to YouTube.com.
- Sign in with a Google account.
- Scroll to the bottom of the page.
- Restricted Mode will be Off. Click the drop down arrow and details about ‘restricted mode’ Click On and Save to activate Restricted Mode.
If you have more than one browser on your computer, you’ll need to perform the process for all the browsers.
What does parental controls do on YouTube. It forces the safe account to use age restriction settings, community flagging, and other info to filter unsuitable videos for kids. So, it does a pretty good job of filtering out videos, such as the Momo Challenge and other dangerous videos.
If you’d like to take a deeper dive into safer search overall for your kids, a good resource is Safe Search Kids. This site discusses many different ways to protect your children on the Internet from dangerous people and activities.