Headteachers are warning parents that online 'suicide game' Momo is being spliced into YouTube videos of Peppa Pig and Fornite.
Schools
across Britain say children are being targeted by creepy images and
clips of the disturbing character on the video sharing website.
The
Momo challenge - which has been linked to two children's deaths -
encourages youngsters to harm themselves and in some cases even take
their own lives.
Today schools began
issuing warnings on their websites and social media accounts saying they
have been contacted by hundreds of concerned parents.
Schools across Britain say
children are being targeted by creepy images and clips of the disturbing
character (pictured) on the video sharing website
Haslingden Primary School, Rossendale,
near Blackburn said in statement: 'We have become increasingly aware of
highly inappropriate videos circulating online and are being viewed by
children across the school.
'These video clips are appearing on many social media sites and YouTube (including Kids YouTube).
'One
of the videos starts innocently, like the start of a Peppa Pig episode
for example, but quickly turn into an altered version with violence and
offensive language.
A number of schools have been warning parents to be vigilant in posts on their social media sites
'Another
video clip is going by the name of 'MoMo' which shows a warped white
mask which is promoting children to do dangerous tasks without telling
their parents.
'Examples we have noticed in school include asking the children to turn the gas on or to find and take tablets.
As
you can imagine, this is highly distressing for the children to view.
We encourage you to be vigilant when your child is using any device or
watching any clips.'
Offley Endowed
Primary school, near Luton, Bedfordshire, said this morning: 'We are
aware of Momo challenges that are appearing as pop ups on Youtube kids,
Fortnite & Peppa Pig etc & will be talking to the children about
it in Assembly.
'Please be vigilant with your child using IT. We are asking children to tell a grown up & not click on Momo images.'
Northolt
Community Special School in Hull, East Yorkshire said: 'We are aware
that some nasty challenges (Momo challenge) are hacking into children's
programmes.
'Challenges appear midway through Kids YouTube, Fortnight, Peppa pig to avoid detection by adults.
'Please be vigilant with your child using IT, images are very disturbing.'
Momo features a creepy woman with dark
hair, a devilish grin and protruding eyes, who entices children through a
WhatsApp account and then sends them images and instruction on how to
harm themselves and others.
Momo threatens that if the children don't do what she says then she will 'curse them'.
This
week a concerned mother from Manchester, who asked to remain anonymous,
said she was 'deeply alarmed' when her seven-year-old son's teacher
told her he had been making threats to other pupils at school.
What is the Momo 'suicide game' and where did it originate?
The Momo challenge was first reported in July last year, and was described as a new 'Blue Whale' style suicide game.
It started on WhatsApp, and challenged users to contact ‘Momo’ by sending messages to an unknown number.
The user was then hounded with frightening images and violent messages.
Children are contacted on WhatsApp and other online platforms by the cartoon Momo, who is encouraging children to self-harm
No
one knows exactly where Momo originated, or who is behind the
disturbing trend, though it was linked to at least seven phone numbers
beginning with codes from Japan and multiple countries across Latin
America.
The Momo challenge then started popping up in videos that were posted to social media.
The
Momo avatar was created by Japanese special effects company Link
Factory and designed by Midori Hayashi who has no relation whatsoever to
the game.
The scary design originally featured at Tokyo's horror art Vanilla Gallery under the name Mother Bird.
Momo’s features include a painfully gaunt face, bulging eyes and an unnaturally thin and long smile.
In
September a 12-year-old girl and 16-year-old boy in Colombia are said
to have killed themselves after playing the a suicide challenge game on
WhatsApp.
The tragic deaths happened
within the space of just 48 hours in the municipality of Barbosa, in the
north west Colombian area of Santander.
Local media report that the body of the 16-year-old boy was found first and that it is believed he knew the 12-year-old girl.
He reportedly passed the game Momo game onto her before his death.
Within 48 hours, she too was found dead. It is reported she was found by relatives hanged from a wardrobe.
The two youngsters who died had their phones seized by police, who say they found messages linked with the game.
After
discussing it with her son, she discovered he had been influenced by
the Momo challenge and in a post to the Love Westhoughton Facebook group
she revealed the horrendous things that Momo had told him to do.
She said: 'When I collected him from school the teacher asked to talk to me.
'She said he had made three kids cry by telling them that 'Momo was going to go into their room at night and kill them'.
'When
we got home I spoke to him about this and he told me that some kids at
school had told him to look at the 'Momo challenge' which he did.'
She
added: 'When we watched a video the 'Momo' character told him to tell
everyone to fear Momo or it will kill him in his sleep. So I have one
very frightened little boy and some deep concerns about the kids in his
school.
'Parent controls are as tight
as could be and this **** still slips through. So if you have a child it
would be well worth it to open up a dialogue about idiots online and
try to get ahead of this.'
Yesterday
mother Lyn Dixon told how her eight year old son became frightened of
the dark and was scared to be alone after Momo appeared on YouTube
videos he was watching.
The mother, from Edinburgh, said: 'He showed me an image of the face on my phone.
'He said that she had told him to go into the kitchen drawer and take out a knife and put it into his neck.
'We've
told him it's a load of rubbish and there are bad people out there who
do bad things but it's frightening, really frightening.'
Ms Dixon added: 'It started with him not wanting to go upstairs on his own because it was dark up there.
'He was terrified and wouldn't sleep in his own bed and then we got to the bottom of it and we explained it wasn't real.'
Police have also issued warnings about the challenge.
Officers in Northern Ireland are now working with forces across the UK in order to stop the game.
Other
forces including the Met Police in London have sent out information via
borough team facebook pages from the National Online Safety
campaign about Momo.
Detective Sergeant
Elaine McCormill from the Police Service of Northern Ireland, said:
"This extremely disturbing challenge conceals itself within other
harmless-looking games or videos played by children and when downloaded,
it asks the user to communicate with 'Momo' via popular messaging
applications such as WhatsApp.
"It is
at this point that children are threatened that they will be cursed or
their family will be hurt if they do not self-harm."
Derbyshire police are also urging parents to visit an article on the website parentzone.org.uk.
The
article says: "Many prominent YouTubers create videos of
themselves trying to reach out to Momo which get many views through, for
example, sharing on social media.
"Make
sure that they know that they should not be trying to contact strangers
via social media platforms and instant messaging apps. It could
be useful to show them how to enable privacy settings and disable
location sharing so that they don't fall victims to scams."
National
Safety Online provides courses and educational resources to support UK
schools to educate the whole school community, including parents,
in Online Safety.
They tweeted on
Tuesday: "Today we've heard from hundreds of concerned schools and
parents about the horrifying £Momo challenge which has reportedly been
appearing in children's YouTube videos, causing panic and upset amongst
young people. We hope you find our guide useful."
An information page can be downloaded from their website.
Advice
includes, telling children Momo is not real, be present when your child
is online, check device settings and parental controls and report and
block anything untoward you see.
YouTube has been contacted for comment.
Source: Dailymail
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