Momo Challenge - scaremongering or a real danger?

AudreyHepburn

I just want to point out that I am not trying to sensationalize anything nor am I worked up unnecessarily over it. I am concerned about the potential threat this could pose to vulnerable children and teenagers and I fail to see what’s so unreasonable about that.

Yes to us as adults Momo is clearly not real and not dangerous but put yourselves onto the mind of a young child or vulnerable teenager and it’s only too easy to see how they could fall victim to this and similar apps.

weldoninhio

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

You said children need more real world interaction - I’m asking if you seriously consider Momo part of that or something children need?

No, but if they were more outdoorsy and street smart, they'd realise that Momo is nonsense and doesn't actually exist.

Anthonylfc

my son was playing minecraft and it messaged him

Mo Mo Challenge go kill yourself

that's all it said

weldoninhio

NIMAN wrote: »

I would agree.

Could Cee Jay Cee please post some more information as to how it happened? If you know the case in question, I would be interested to hear how the 6yr old was contacted.

No sign of him/her. I hope Momo hasn't gotten to them.

The Pheasant2

joe40 wrote: »

I haven't seen any evidence of a "moral panic" over this. Parents aren't going to be destroying their kids ipads/phones any time soon.
This particular thing may have been over egged a bit I just don't know, but there is plenty of very harmful stuff online, even on kids sites, so if this raises overall awareness then it can be a good thing.

The internet is great and there are plenty of benefits for kids engaging online but care also needs to be taken.

Cars are great, revolutionised how we get about, but safety considerations also had to evolve over time.

I agree there is a balance to be struck between safe internet access and safety concerns. Still early days in all this.

Yeah that's all fair enough.

It doesn't change the fact that in this case, nothing of what people are fearing is actually true.

It's a boogeyman conjured up by the media and it's snowballing due to naive and dishonest (https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/momo-challenge-limerick-mum-warns-14055663.amp) parents perpetuating the panic - if anything all this will result in actual Momo videos being made by edgy teenagers looking to get some kicks

Anthonylfc

Anthonylfc wrote: »

my son was playing minecraft and it messaged him

Mo Mo Challenge go kill yourself

that's all it said

Did you see the message?

Anthonylfc

Strawberry Milkshake wrote: »

Did you see the message?

yeah showed me this morning

no picture of the face

was like a friend chatting , just a message

Anthonylfc

in fairness my lad is 8 , and all he uses is minecraft , roblox and youtube for kids

if somebody uses a swear word he tells me , always talks to me if he has any issues which is great as some kids say feck all

Kingp35

Anthonylfc wrote: »

my son was playing minecraft and it messaged him

Mo Mo Challenge go kill yourself

that's all it said

This is a symptom of the hoax. Teenagers have seen this reported in the media and have decided to mess with people themselves. This was probably a troll messaging random people.

Anthonylfc

Anthonylfc wrote: »

in fairness my lad is 8 , and all he uses is minecraft , roblox and youtube for kids

if somebody uses a swear word he tells me , always talks to me if he has any issues which is great as some kids say feck all

It could be the knock on effect too and someone else has a variation of the momo name and typed it. I’d say there are thousands of messers right now doing exactly that.

Can you disable chat or make it friends only?

Boom_Bap

Anthonylfc wrote: »

in fairness my lad is 8 , and all he uses is minecraft , roblox and youtube for kids

if somebody uses a swear word he tells me , always talks to me if he has any issues which is great as some kids say feck all

Roblox is a place where people spread these 'challenges'.
KidsTube is good, but, there are cases where an video of say Barney after 15 minutes will start to be dubbed with random weird stuff.

Anthonylfc

Strawberry Milkshake wrote: »

It could be the knock on effect too and someone else has a variation of the momo name and typed it. I’d say there are thousands of messers right now doing exactly that.

Can you disable chat or make it friends only?

did it this morning yep

i think its scaremongering tbh

weldoninhio

Kingp35 wrote: »

This is a symptom of the hoax. Teenagers have seen this reported in the media and have decided to mess with people themselves. This was probably a troll messaging random people.

Exactly, people are just going into the IM of apps and games and sending "Momo" messages, all set in motion by the hysteria of the media and Facebook mums.

AudreyHepburn

Can I ask, and this is a genuine question, how are people so sure Momo (as in the app not the character) doesn’t exist or is a hoax?

Or is it that people want it to be a hoax or a lie so they don’t have to deal with the disturbing nature of it?

Anthonylfc

Boom_Bap wrote: »

Roblox is a place where people spread these 'challenges'.
KidsTube is good, but, there are cases where an video of say Barney after 15 minutes will start to be dubbed with random weird stuff.

or bad peppa pig ( i even laugh at them ha ha )

or bad postman pat :D

i know you say " he's 8 what does he know " but i give my kid some responsibility and if he abuses it , screen taken away for a week

he's yet to act the maggot

Uncharted

Kingp35 wrote: »

This is a symptom of the hoax. Teenagers have seen this reported in the media and have decided to mess with people themselves. This was probably a troll messaging random people.

Correct

NIMAN

Anthonylfc wrote: »

my son was playing minecraft and it messaged him

Mo Mo Challenge go kill yourself

that's all it said

It isnt a living thing. Momo can't message anyone, someone had to have messaged your son, likely a friend or a sibling of one of his friends.

Deebles McBeebles

Momo just messaged me and told me to go eat here...freaky.
https://www.momos.ie/

weldoninhio

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

Can I ask, and this is a genuine question, how are people so sure Momo (as in the app not the character) doesn’t exist or is a hoax?

Or is it that people want it to be a hoax or a lie so they don’t have to deal with the disturbing nature of it?

If I pm you and say "Momo Challenge: Kill a random stranger." Does that make it real??

Anthonylfc

Deebles McBeebles wrote: »

Momo just messaged me and told me to go eat here...freaky.
https://www.momos.ie/

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:pac::pac::pac::pac::pac:

razorblunt

Load of shíte, it's like the "American Dream" stories doing the rounds years ago.

nelly17

Im convinced its a Hoax - its actually easier to market a harmful app than create the app itself playing on peoples fears, I think thats what has been done here. I have not seen the video which was originally supposed to have been shared on Whatsapp so therefore can not be an app or game as reported and also would most likely have to have been shared to you by someone in your contacts (who would do that?) if its a youtube video and people have had it reported to them they would take it down, same with facebook (Why is your Kid on Facebook?) if its an App you dont install it by accident. So most logical explanation for me is its a hoax that feeds on peoples fear of technology that has in effect gone viral. As an example someone said their son got a message playing Minecraft - there was a user at the other end of that message and a gamertag which could be reported.

AudreyHepburn

weldoninhio wrote: »

If I pm you and say "Momo Challenge: Kill a random stranger." Does that make it real??

Of course not but clearly what’s happening is not as simple as that and there is clearly something scaring children and leading them to do horrible things.

And I don’t understand why people are so reluctant to acknowledge this.

The Pheasant2

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

Can I ask, and this is a genuine question, how are people so sure Momo (as in the app not the character) doesn’t exist or is a hoax?

I dunno about others but for me it's the utter lack of any substantive evidence whatsoever.
Literally not one shred of evidence bar hearsay from attention hungry Facebook mams...perhaps you just have a lower burden of proof for these kinds of things.
No proof in this case.

TheChizler

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

there is clearly something scaring children and leading them to do horrible things.

Any specific examples of this?

Sleepy

You know what? So what if it's scaremongering.

If it encourages more parents to actively monitor or supervise their kids online activities, is a hoax like this a bad thing?

Sleepy

Sleepy wrote: »

You know what? So what if it's scaremongering.

If it encourages more parents to actively monitor or supervise their kids online activities, is a hoax like this a bad thing?

Yes. Yes it is.

iguana

I don't know how anyone could doubt the veracity of this story. I mean pop-up ads on youtube cost quite a bit of money. And everyone knows that there are people with deep pockets out there who would absolutely have money to spend on ads that will pop up and dare children to kill themselves. Everyone knows that investing hard capital on adverts that build a customer base who then kill themselves is a surefire path to profit.

What's not to believe????

Either that or it's a BS story made up for clicks (which do generate profit) that's now turned into a type of urban legend that some kids/assholes are contributing to for giggles and some stupid people in the media and a bunch Helen Lovejoys have fallen for. It would be funny if it wasn't for the fact that while people over-react to this nonsense there are real things online that we should protect ourselves and our children from and most people continually fail to.

Sleepy

LOL - within 30 seconds of posting that, I got a Whatsapp linking to the Indo article from a friend with small kids!

Sleepy

Deleted User wrote: »

Yes. Yes it is.

Why?

What harm is the scaremongering doing? I can only see a good result out of it: better protected children.

Boom_Bap

We're talking here about Momo, presumably all as adults of late teens.
But, kids, who are aware of Momo, talk about it as well, and not the way we are talking about it. If if it's a thing that doesn't exist, they are talking about it.
I just checked the chat logs from my kids XBox yoke, there is a mention of Momo in it. Nothing sinister, just a mention of the name.



It's another iteration of the Slenderman, this was freaking kids out a year or so ago. It has reach, it has impact.

weldoninhio

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

Of course not but clearly what’s happening is not as simple as that and there is clearly something scaring children and leading them to do horrible things.

And I don’t understand why people are so reluctant to acknowledge this.

Its 100% what is happening. People are going into apps, going to the Instant Messaging area and sending messages to kids with the heading Momo challenge. Its literally that simple. I'm actually surprised that no one has signed up to Boards for the craic with the username Momo to send ridiculous messages to randomers.

NIMAN

The face of the character itself I know would probably scare my kids.

I even find it freaky looking, and kids are far easier scared, especially if they hear older kids or kids allowed more online access mentioning it in school.

The reason why all national schools should have phone bans. There is no need for phones to be in schools for kids so young.

TheChizler

Boom_Bap wrote: »

We're talking here about Momo, presumably all as adults of late teens.
But, kids, who are aware of Momo, talk about it as well, and not the way we are talking about it. If if it's a thing that doesn't exist, they are talking about it.
I just checked the chat logs from my kids XBox yoke, there is a mention of Momo in it. Nothing sinister, just a mention of the name.



It's another iteration of the Slenderman, this was freaking kids out a year or so ago. It has reach, it has impact.

That's the thing, it's the concept, or meme, that is freaking people out, rather than any single group or app.

coolisin

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

Of course not but clearly what’s happening is not as simple as that and there is clearly something scaring children and leading them to do horrible things.

And I don’t understand why people are so reluctant to acknowledge this.

If it exists its a sick person being a d1ck, setting up a new account and texting people they know on whatsapp and stuff.
There is a lot of it has being jumped on and inflamed by the media and people needing to share a story without checking it.

I had someone say Momo is in Fortnite now.
Sure Epic games programmed Momo into fortnite, sure you believe that.
Your worried Momo is in a game where your kid is talking and communicating with strangers.
And one of these d1cks are not jumping on the drama this made up "thing" has created, for a sick joke.

Momo is like saying slender man or the boogeyman exists.
If your worried about Momo, and people being d1cks dont have a kid using a commnication device, connecting to the World Wide Web for entertainment purposes.

Entertain them in other ways.

Thus removing the threat of Momo from their lives.

iguana

Sleepy wrote: »

What harm is the scaremongering doing? I can only see a good result out of it: better protected children.

Because they aren't going to better protect their children. Shït like this is only likely to make people more clueless and less likely to ensure meaningful protections for their children (and themselves) online. It's like the online equivalent of so many parents being paranoid about stranger danger but failing to ensure even minimal car seat safety.

NIMAN

weldoninhio wrote: »

Its 100% what is happening. People are going into apps, going to the Instant Messaging area and sending messages to kids with the heading Momo challenge. Its literally that simple. I'm actually surprised that no one has signed up to Boards for the craic with the username Momo to send ridiculous messages to randomers.

imho kids young enough to be scared by such a thing shouldn't have contactable accounts online.

No kid up to 8 or 9 should have a WhatsApp or Viber account
Or a Facebook/Twitter/Snapchat account.

I would guess plenty have, cos there's plenty of irresponsible parents out there.

iguana

Boom_Bap wrote: »

It's another iteration of the Slenderman, this was freaking kids out a year or so ago. It has reach, it has impact.

It only has reach because of all the idiots posting warnings about it turning it into something that's gone so viral. If people engaged their brains for 30 seconds and didn't repost clearly made up nonsense nobody would ever have heard about it.

Dial Hard

AudreyHepburn wrote:

Can I ask, and this is a genuine question, how are people so sure Momo (as in the app not the character) doesn’t exist or is a hoax?

Because there literally isn't a shred of documentary evidence that such an app exists. Nobody has been able to access or download any such app. Not a single tech journalist has written a "So I signed up to see how it works and here's the deal" article.

And even leaving all that aside for a moment - what on earth would be the point of anyone developing such an app? Where's the gain from it??? What's the return in the investment required to a) develop the app in the first place and b) flood YouTube with the embedded videos advertising it that people seem to be convinced are all over the place despite a complete lack of evidence of them?

The entire thing makes absolutely no sense at all from either a tech or a commercial perspective.

xzanti

You’d be surprised how desensitized kids have become. Nightmare Realm games like Five Nights at Freddys, Bendy and the Ink Machine and Hello Neighbour are all the rage and they are pretty gruesome and are marketed towards kids. Smyths are selling merchandise for the above.

I personally think it’s a common sense issue. Be honest with your kids. Tell them that this is not a spirit, or a witch, or a demon, just some as5hole who can write code and has little else to be doing with their time other than wind up little kids.

The Simpsons episode springs to mind where Marge comes home to find Homer behind the couch with a shotgun because he thinks the boogiman is coming and he needs to protect the kids.

Stop being hysterical, use logic and don’t let your kids have devices unsupervised. IMHO.

joe40

xzanti wrote: »

You’d be surprised how desensitized kids have become. Nightmare Realm games like Five Nights at Freddys, Bendy and the Ink Machine and Hello Neighbour are all the rage and they are pretty gruesome and are marketed towards kids. Smyths are selling merchandise for the above.

I personally think it’s a common sense issue. Be honest with your kids. Tell them that this is not a spirit, or a witch, or a demon, just some as5hole who can write code and has little else to be doing with their time other than wind up little kids.

The Simpsons episode springs to mind where Marge comes home to find Homer behind the couch with a shotgun because he thinks to boogiman is coming and he needs to protect the kids.

Stop being hysterical, use logic and don’t let your kids have devices unsupervised. IMHO.

I would agree with a lot of that, but I honestly don't think anyone is been hysterical. In what way are parents been hysterical.

You are still going to have irresponsible parents allowing 7-8 year olds on facebook/whatsapp etc and responsible parents keeping an eye on things.

I do see a problem with well intentioned warnings having the counter productive affect off starting of copy cats but that is always an issue.
Does talking about suicide prevention sometimes actually make it cool for some people?? I'm not saying it does but I can see the possibility.

Sleepy

Sleepy wrote: »

You know what? So what if it's scaremongering.

If it encourages more parents to actively monitor or supervise their kids online activities, is a hoax like this a bad thing?

Because it's a made-up issue it will things being seen to be done then it'll all go back to normal for the parents too lazy, excuse me, busy, to keep an eye on their kids properly. Some day it'll be another app/fad blamed for awful stuff that doesn't happen and the cycle will continue.

AudreyHepburn

Dial Hard wrote: »

Because there literally isn't a shred of documentary evidence that such an app exists. Nobody has been able to access or download any such app. Not a single tech journalist has written a "So I signed up to see how it works and here's the deal" article.

And even leaving all that aside for a moment - what on earth would be the point of anyone developing such an app? Where's the gain from it??? What's the return in the investment required to a) develop the app in the first place and b) flood YouTube with the embedded videos advertising it that people seem to be convinced are all over the place despite a complete lack of evidence of them?

The entire thing makes absolutely no sense at all from either a tech or a commercial perspective.

How do you know people haven’t signed up for it? Do you honestly believe all these parents, children and law enforcement agencies are making it up? Come on I know you’re not that naive.

As for why someone would do something like that - there are plenty of sick minded individuals out there who get a kick out causing others pain and distress.

xzanti

joe40 wrote: »

You are still going to have irresponsible parents allowing 7-8 year olds on facebook/whatsapp etc and responsible parents keeping an eye on things.

.

Some people are immune to common sense and logic.

I'll repeat myself: do NOT let kids on devices unsupervised.

von Smallhausen

And it begins.....

SEEN IT ALL DAY! FIGURED MY GIRLS WATCH YOUTUBE SO ID ASK THEM ABOUT IT JUST TO SEE IF THEY HAVE EVER SEEN ANYTHING TO DO WITH IT... THEY HAVE KIDS YOUTUBE WHICH AS A PARENT NAIVELY I THOUGHT WAS SAFE. IVE SAT AND WATCHED COUNTLESS OF VIDEOS WITH THE GIRLS ABOUT PEPPA PIG, PAW PATROL.. NURSERY RHYMES THE LOT. ALL HAVE BEEN FINE. THINKING IT WAS OK. IM COMPELETLY DEVASTATED TO SAY IM WRONG. ALL I ASKED CALLIE AND LOLA TODAY WAS THE WORD 'MOMO' CALLIE STARTED SCREAMING SAYING I HAVENT SEEN ANYTHING. SHE IMMEDIATELY WENT INTO A STATE OF HOLDING HER EARS AND TELLING ME TO NOT SAY ANYTHING... I ONLY MENTIONED HER NAME. IVE WATCHED THE VIDEOS AND ITS HORRIBLE. THEY DISGUISE IT AND ITS SICK. SHES TERRIFIED. THEY TELL THE KIDS TO KEEP IT SECRET AND IF THEY SAY ANYTHING THEY WILL COME GET YOUR PARENTS INSTEAD. I CANT BELIEVE MY POOR GIRL IS AFFRAID OF SOMETHING I LET HER WATCH. SOME HORRIBLE SICK PEOPLE OUT THERE. NO MORE YOUTUBE IN MY HOUSE AT ALL!! SHARE THE HELL OUT OF THIS. SHE HAS NEVER EVER EVER EVER MENTIONED THIS TO ME. AND TO SEE HOW SCARED SHE REALLY IS OF IT, THERE IS DEFFINATELY MORE KIDS TRYING TO KEEP QUIET BECAUSE THEY THINK SOMETHING BAD WILL HAPPEN. ����

Sleepy

Sleepy wrote: »

Why?

What harm is the scaremongering doing? I can only see a good result out of it: better protected children.

Or.... a heap of publicity/press given to a non-event which in return will result in a load of edgelord teens actually creating memes/youtube clips that target kids for the lolz and actually causing this phenomenon to exist.

Also, I don't like the fact that the media can concoct a hoax in order to scare people. I know it happens, but I don't need to be accepting of it.

Boom_Bap

iguana wrote: »

It only has reach because of all the idiots posting warnings about it turning it into something that's gone so viral. If people engaged their brains for 30 seconds and didn't repost clearly made up nonsense nobody would ever have heard about it.

No, it's been spread amongst kids already and parents are only catching up now.


There is a distinction between how kids react to these things and how adults react.
Kids are on the social stigma/pressure side of things.
Parents are on the catching up and then trying to quash side of things.


How you see something is much different to how kids in todays society see things.

Hannibal_Smith

Is it really all a hoax? No one has ever seen it come up in a video??

Kingp35

Hannibal_Smith wrote: »

Is it really all a hoax? No one has ever seen it come up in a video??

There is not one shred of verifiable evidence that it exists. None.

TheChizler

Kingp35 wrote: »

There is not one shred of verifiable evidence that it exists. None.

Define "it". There are certainly apps in the Google Play store which seem to be capitalising on the popularity of the meme, I'd categorise these as copycat attempts though.

I don't doubt at all for a second that pranksters somewhere have been inspired to set up an account in whatever platform with the momo avatar or name and are trying to creep people out. That said any reports I've seen have been purely anecdotal,

It's kindof a self-fulfilling prophecy, the hype has made it real in someways. But the hyperbole about consequences is way over the top.