All you need to
know about the Momo challenge and Momo suicide game
What is Momo Challenge?
People 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.
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.
Comments
Post a Comment