Momo - To delete YouTube for all

[carrywatermelons]

DC watch a mix of documentaries, gaming and family challenge videos on YouTube. The eldest uses it to practice singing between lessons.
Momo has terrified me, my youngest DC8 is very sensitive so I really want to try and protect them.
Eldest DC has known about momo for a while and is a bit hardier but feel like it wouldn't be fair to 'allow' one and not the other.
What have you decided to do about momo?

Momo?

I've seen about momo in the paper, do they actively have to watch it as a channel or is it something that pops up as an ad?

It's the latest scary thing Mma, set to frighten kids that it's going to kill them.

What have you decided to do about momo?

Absolutely nothing, because an 8 year old shouldn't be watching youtube videos unsupervised.

It's hidden in videos.
It threatens to kill people if you say anything and shows your DC how to hurt themselves. It tells them to do dangerous things such as take pills or turn the oven on. Deaths are already linked to it.

DS is only a toddler but I seriously consider never letting him access the internet at all unless for school. Some children could become seriously psychologically disturbed by things like momo.

You can set controls on YouTube kids so that your kids can only watch videos and channels that you give access too. We put only official channels on ours so DD can’t access any of these weird kids unwrapping present videos but can watch Peppa Pig/ben&holly etc without the risk of seeing these videos.

It pops up, so even watching with DC8 would make it terrifying.

[[https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/debunking-the-momo-challenge-6-tips-on-how-to-talk-to-your-kids-about-scaremongering-suicide-games_uk_5c700160e4b03cfdaa54604d here] is a pretty Huff Post good article which 'debunks' some of the common myths, which might be useful to make sure that you know what you're dealing with...

But otherwise, supervise the videos they watch. That's all you can do. YouTube Kids will help a bit but is not flawless by any means.

Dammit. try again

I’ve deleted YouTube kids, I thought it was reasonably safe but it doesn’t seem to be. The kids can watch the Netflix app instead.

Surely the children are supervised with what they’re watching in youtube?

My 9 and 6 year old have no access to internet unsupervised, not in my house anyway. We don’t watch YouTube as it’s an absolute minefield for kids. They don’t have their own phones or iPads either.

Don’t be silly, the Momo thing has nothing to do with YouTube.

It’s not even substantiated, but if you are going to panic about a rumour, at least get your internet platform right!

The way to protect your children is only to let them watch what you've already watched. Presumably this information is in the videos, not a random pop-up ad? If you've watched it already, you know the content.
Why would you let small children access content you haven't already approved?

And tbh, it's the comments on YouTube that are most vile!

The worst thing about Momo
Is that doll thing would terrify both of mine just looking at the thing, the rest of though? Mostly hysterics IMHO, before momo it was Blue Whale and no actually suicides we’re actually linked to Bkue Whale. The authorities have come to the conclusion that BW wasn’t orchestrated by some evil adults somewhere but just kids passing on the myth and stories themselves.

And tbh, it's the comments on YouTube that are most vile!

I have to agree with this, some of the comments are truly horrendous.

The MAIN problem you have as far as I can see is allowing your kids to watch YouTube on their own. A lot of the content is NOT suitable and it’s addictive viewing. There are ‘parodies’ if kids programs that children would find incredibly disturbing, crude language, adult humour, endless advertising, cruelty. It’s like you’re allowing them access to your tv box - all of it post 9pm programs, horror movies, whatever without supervision instead of making sure they’re on the kids setting of Netflix or only watching kids tv channels.

Here is what it actually is, nothing to do with embedding clips within YouTube videos (honestly!):

The Momo Challenge:
“the game – which is apparently played on social messaging platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp, and relies on a user messaging an unknown number and receiving increasingly dangerous tasks – has hit the headlines again this week after a seven-year-old told school friends the ‘Momo’ character would “kill them”.

Basically the whole scary thing is that a child has started a scare in a playground by telling kids about this character that will kill them.

Social media and mainstream media has now reported on it and a mild panic is ensuing, in the same manner as

The Momo character is a very ugly Japanese character which was displayed in a fetish exhibition in a museum in Japan a few years ago. Completely unrelated. Some bright spark has pulled the image into this Mono meme to make it scarier.

That’s all.

So can we not spread fear by misinformation and frankly fictional scaremongering?

Let’s actually think of our children here and not create a scare where there is no scare except people whipping up a frenzy for the fun of it.

@WellThisIsShit There are some clips embedded within Videos instructing children to do dangerous things or they/their parents will be cursed/killed.

I agree supervision is part of the problem but let's face it that 3 seconds your child sees that face will disturb them enough even if you are sat next to them.

I think a pre designed playlist is also a good option.

The problem with the main YouTube is a lot of creepy and aggressive comments too.

I know if I saw Momo under the age of about 10/11 I'd have been deeply scarred. Even after if it popped up like a screamer.

I know there are so many videos on YouTube but for the YT Kids app I really think only human verification should be allowed.

I make a playlist of videos that I have watched and that's all my little girl cam watch, I don't leave her unsupervised while she's watching. That's all you can do short of stopping it altogether

I know if I saw Momo under the age of about 10/11 I'd have been deeply scarred.

That's just fucking stupid. The "momo" puppet doesn't look that different to Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal puppets. And they scarred precisely 0 children back in the 80s when it was a mildly popular children's movie. So even if the momo pop up stories are true, which they aren't, your kids will be fine.

Let your kids watch youtube or don't. But if you do, supervise it, be aware of what they are watching. Make sure they watch channels you are ok with. Channels like Ryan's Toy Reviews or Kid City are huge businesses at this point and won't allow any content that hurts their reputations. So you could decide to allow things like that. Do not let your child watch youtube unsupervised in another room. Do not let them use earphones. You need to be able to see and hear everything that they can see and hear. It's not that hard.

I was listening to an album on YouTube on our tv on the weekend while I was cleaning, it was one of them over an hour long things not a playlist type thing, and it popped up in the middle of it as an advert. Some creepy thing saying come and play the momo challenge, I looked up to see that creepy woman and switched it off. My kids weren't here and thank God they weren't.

I have since read that it is popping up on kids YouTube as well as adverts on the videos or within videos like the unwrapping of kinder eggs and things.

My eldest is 8 and is only aloud to watch the kids one and the search thing is disabled and she generally sits on the sofa to watch it anyway but if she even saw that face she would be petrified!

@AhhhHereItGoes is it? Can you point me in the direction of a news article about that please?

I can’t find one anywhere that has a reputable report of this happening, though there are quite a few more news reports about it now than when I posted earlier, so maybe there will be something I haven’t seen coming out!

The new articles I can find are talking about a click on ad in Roblox, which is actually quite worrying, as I can see how a child might become curious about an advert on Roblox and end up clicking through, due to the way Roblox is formatted with ads so prominent.

And I see some second / third hand reports of YouTube but it’s all very unclear and rumour filled...

I do still warn of getting sucked into this stuff. With Slenderman there where reports of lots of deaths from it that lot completely out of hand and these were caused entirely by hype. Again there are reports starting up about deaths with this Momo thing, and again it’s unsubstantiated and being hyped up so much in the media that it causes fear to grow, copy cats to join in, and it all becomes a self fulfilling prophesy.