Momo Challenge

[Mayday]

I know there's a lot of parents here so thought I'd post this:

Parents warned disturbing Momo challenge is 'hacking Peppa Pig' YouTube videos

Videos showing the creepy character popping up in seemingly innocent Peppa Pig episodes are being widely circulated on Facebook

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

YouTube and Instagram fail to take down 'Momo challenge' videos despite police warnings

YouTube and Instagram have failed to take down content featuring an online character targeted at children despite new warnings from the police.

www.telegraph.co.uk

It was popular last year with Youtubers 'playing' it. Apparently a 12 year old girl committed suicide over it and another kid was told to hold a knife to his throat. Its horrifying.

 

[GiggleBee]

I've just seen this on my FB which seems to be connected to the MOMO thing.

 

[SunshineDreamer]

This is one of the main reasons I don’t let my children watch YouTube etc. They are only toddlers but it worries me so much when I see little children handed a phone or iPad and left to watch whatever they click.

I have a younger sister who is very much into YouTube and I was talking to her about this Momo thing. Luckily she’s never seen any of the content but a little girl from her dance class watched one with her young sister and was absolutely terrified.

I can’t quite wrap my head around the fact that a person makes this sort of video knowing full well it’s children who will be watching it.

 

[Web30]

I allow my daugther to watch youtube but its on the main tv so we know excatly what shes watching and shes never alone with the remote to put whatever on. As much as i hate Ryan hes a safe choice compared to a lot of it.

This whole momo thing is so scary!

 

[Yel]

I've heard stories of 2 year olds getting their own tablet! Apart from any of the online dangers it must really affect development. This new danger is only the tip of the iceberg if you let children on the internet without any controls.

Off topic but I think there's a place in hell for parents that just having a tablet playing on loudspeaker for their children on flight or at a restaurant.

 

[ChrissyPoo]

That face scares the shit out of me. It's terrifying... And exactly the reason my children are never left unattended when watching YouTube, Netflix or anything online. We personally find YouTube kids less safe (because it's targeted more) than the normal YouTube app.

 

[It's me]

This is why so many people don't worry about their children watching family channels per se. When shit like this goes round the internet then most family channels; which most parents can't actually understand why children like to watch but kids do. Although children's TV shows have shown snippets of family life forever. They think it's something harmless.
Parents don't presume families who put themselves out there frequently have big dark secrets to hide; such as the Inghams. As they think if they did they wouldn't be on YouTube. Obviously people like us know better.

 

This is why I never really introduced my son to tablets or YouTube.

He’s 7 now, if he wants to watch cartoons he watches them on regular tv or sky demand. If he wants to play computer games he can play his Nintendo DS that’s not connected to the internet. We have a few apps on my tablet which I know are safe and can be used with WiFi off, he uses those occasionally while in the same room as us.

The internet is not for kids and people who give their children unsupervised access to it are, at best, naive.

 

[Yel]

I do think this momo stuff is mostly fake news, YouTube said themselves the videos that are said to exist don't. Old media running with a story without any facts. I'm not even sure how it would work, as there would need to be individuals running a "momo" whatsapp and children having unfiltered access to that also.

Still the moral is to never let children use the internet unsupervised.

 

[Web30]

This morning are in about it now. Youtube have said its not even a thing, thier is no proof that this even exsits according to them!

 

[Web30]

Iv not even looked on youtube to see if thier are any momo videos tbh.

 

[Peeltheavocado]

There was an incident in my daughters class this week. One of the girls was terrified and wrote out a note to YouTube to take it (she didn’t fully understand) the deputy head came and spoke to the class.
I spoke to her on the phone yesterday and we’ve had emails from the school today. My daughter hasn’t seen it and doesn’t know what it looks like or what it does. We’ve had a conversation about it, similar to the conversation the deputy head had. She didn’t want to talk about too much, to the point where they got too curious, went home and looked it up.
We’re talking about mostly 7 year old children. And apparently there’s been some play acting in the play ground around this momo challenge.
We stopped YouTube altogether as like other parents we saw a diffence in behaviour. She likes to play puzzle games and silly slime games. But I’ve made sure that on her iPad she can only access the websites that are on the parental controls.
Last year we were watching YouTube with her on our tv and an ad for insidious came on just before a child’s cartoon ??‍??‍??‍??‍
Such a minefield isn’t it.

 

Looking like the Gatwick Drone

 

[GiggleBee]

Looking like the Gatwick Drone

I'm so confused people are saying their kids have seen it ect but others are saying it's fake ?

 

[WiKi]

I'm so confused people are saying their kids have seen it ect but others are saying it's fake ?

A lot of kids are saying they’ve seen it but that could be because a) parents have asked them out of well meaning concern, showed them the picture and it’s freaked them out and the mind has started playing tricks etc or b) other kids at school have shown them.

There are no videos that have been ‘hacked’ and had Momo spliced into them. That would require some serious hacking skills and for YouTube to have a massive flaw in its security which would’ve been breached in other ways by now if it existed. There are videos up that look like that but they all seem to be very recent and actually have Momo in the video title. There are a few videos of you tubers doing the Momo challenge from a year or 2 ago but, again, they have Momo in the video title so it’s not a surprise

 

[emmer_moans]

Oh my!

 

[It's me]

A sensible talk about Momo and internet safety.
John Lordan always comes up with facts.

 

[Dontspillthemilk]

I've heard stories of 2 year olds getting their own tablet! Apart from any of the online dangers it must really affect development. This new danger is only the tip of the iceberg if you let children on the internet without any controls.

Off topic but I think there's a place in hell for parents that just having a tablet playing on loudspeaker for their children on flight or at a restaurant.

This honestly blows my mind. In our group of friends, my son (21months) is the only one who doesn’t watch tv or plays with a tablet. Our friend bought her 2yr old a kindle fire for Christmas and she sits there with headphones watching YouTube? I’m honestly trying to see a benefit but it breaks my heart when I see little toddlers in buggy’s glued to their mummy’s phone. All my son is interested in is his cuddly Babbitt and trying to hug dogs.

 

[Web30]

This honestly blows my mind. In our group of friends, my son (21months) is the only one who doesn’t watch tv or plays with a tablet. Our friend bought her 2yr old a kindle fire for Christmas and she sits there with headphones watching YouTube? I’m honestly trying to see a benefit but it breaks my heart when I see little toddlers in buggy’s glued to their mummy’s phone. All my son is interested in is his cuddly Babbitt and trying to hug dogs.

We went through that with my daugther. Had her first tablet at 2 and id let her sit with it to get some peace through out the day... Its such a lazy thing to do.
Shes got a amazon kids fire now and youtube isnt on it, she rarely goes on it but shes only got learning games on it (teach monster is fab for phonics)

I dont think they are bad but its so easy to let them babysit your kids.

 

[Sabbie]

Nadia Sawalha was just talking about this.
OT I'm still on the fence about whether Nadi and Mark need a thread on here. Sooo much of them bugs me. Anyone else?