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?

I think they tend to get deleted quite quickly don’t they? On the post it displays the channel the video is on and that particular channel is indeed on YT kids.

Your all being trolled

*you're ffs

If it appears within a video, why does nobody ever link to the video in question?

Exactly. Or it’s just a screen shot of the supposed video on YouTube which is very easy to mock up.

I think it’s one of Rupert Murdoch’s cunning plans to force the young uns into going back to the telly box. *taps nose. Mark my words.

Aside from whether this Momo is on You Tube or not, this is a broader issue parents needs to be aware of.

There are lots of people making and uploading 'child' appropriate content to You Tube. These then contain secret disturbing content part the way through the video. Well known characters are often used like Peppa Pig, Mickey Mouse, Paw Patrol etc. This article has more detail

www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jun/17/peppa-pig-youtube-weird-algorithms-automated-content

Videos and channels get taken down and are quick to be replaced. You Tube (and You Tube Kids) is not safe. It is not fully moderated, so please protect your children. Don't assume content is moderated like a TV channel, it's not.

The only thing You Tube is good for are Supernatural fan videos and flat earth theories.

Have the discussion with children and teens that if they do see or exposed to something that makes them uncomfortable or that ask that they keep secrets then it's not ok and they should tell a trusted adult, parent or teacher.

@MynameisJune Like I said, I hadn’t checked it out as mine are too old for Peppa now. I saw it just before I saw your comment.

What videos does it appear within? And how?
Youtubers make money through subscribers, who are very quick to unsubscribe if they see content they don't like. Any YouTuber making vids aimed at kids would be sabotaging their income stream to hide scary pop ups in their videos.
Unless you're saying that YouTube has been 'hacked' somehow and this supposed pop up is being placed within videos by some malignant troll?
Because uh you know adults watch a lot of YouTube too (I watch several videos a day personally) and I've never had a momo pop up

Not to mention the bigger point which is that YouTube hasn't been hacked by some momo troll it's a ridiculous theory

I don't know much about momo except it is being reported in the media to support and encourage self harm and suicide. If you want to protect your DC, either keep them offline or supervise them properly when online. Update your parental controls on your technology.

@ritzbiscuits

Exactly. I don't let DD watch YouTube for kids anymore. Every tenth or so video is Peppa Pig getting shot or some little boy getting tortured at the dentist or suchlike. It's too much trouble having to sit there and make sure she doesn't see those.

Actually I can see how someone could post an (edited) duplicate of a legitimate video on there pretty easily.

There are several things getting mixed up at once.

There are indeed inappropriate videos involving children's characters on youtube. They aren't especially sinister nor made to trap children, they are made by teens/adults who find it funny... much like jokes on MN about how Peppa Pig is so annoying you want to make her into a bacon sandwich or that facebook page about the mum from the reading scheme books who swears and drinks gin. They aren't made for children, it's a joke, aimed at adults/older teens who think they are edgy. These have been around for years, DS1 used to like videos of people playing Thomas trains and there was the odd one which would be sweary. As we watched together it was easy to avoid those channels in future. He's ten now so that would have been 2010/11/12 ish? And they were often a few years old. Swearing Postman Pat has been around for ages (and is quite funny) as well.

Yes the youtube algorithm for autoplay/suggested videos will often throw these up because it's a computer and can't tell the difference... therefore don't let your young kids/toddlers click randomly on youtube, nor leave autoplay on.

There are odd and quite frankly disturbing videos made by video-creating AI, but again it's not somebody being deliberately sinister, it's just computers putting code together and having no way to tell that something will appear offensive to a human viewer, because it's a computer.

I don't believe there are any real videos with momo pop ups in the middle with or without disturbing instructions. I watch a lot of youtube, so does DS1, who is probably in the "target" age range for Momo and he's never seen any.

Yep
My DS only watches YouTube never actual TV and he's never seen a momo pop up

There is something creepy about what consistently comes up in searches/suggested/auto-created videos and my guess about that is that it's fetish driven - there are some really weird fetishes that aren't overtly sexual so the video content is there on youtube and people who are into that kind of thing tend to keep searching and clicking for similar things. The computer systems (one that creates new videos, or one that decides which videos to suggest to you in the hopes of keeping you on the site a bit longer) notice that these themes get clicks so they promote them. It feels a bit off/weird to humans but if we don't know that the fetish is a fetish, it doesn't twig why.

It's been around for ages op. I regularly check what they are watching and had a chat with them (7 and 10) last year about it, read them some articles I'd found about it and showed them the pic of the dummy or whatever it is to demystify it all.

I’m so glad some sensible posters arrived with a sense of how technology works, so I’m not on my own getting shouted down.

It is sad how these panics sweep across child and parent populations, when basic education technology education and a healthy dose of ‘how to read the news’ would fix the parent panic at least. Sigh.

(Waits for tomorrow’s news when it emerges that Momo has been seen multiple times ‘popping up’ all over you tube and has in fact spread to other social media, like a virus, in fact it IS a virus, and we’re all doooooomed, arghhh! End of world scenario I was NOT expecting ).

Link to one of the videos then please

Has anyone actually searched for mono videos o or you tube?!

I'll be back in five minutes. If I'm not, you know momo got me.

Our police service have put out a notice warning parents re momo popping up within games but also in youtube so im pretty sure it's happening. I asked DS (7) if he'd heard of momo and he said no. I made the mistake of showing him a picture of her and even the sight of her freaked him out and hes now frightened to go on youtube in case it pops up. Ive taken the opportunity to remove it from all our devices, its something ive been thinking about for a while and this has given me thw push to do it.

I'm back. Momo didn't eat me. Yet.

It's been knocking around online for ages by the looks of it and there's loads of videos from gamers with the momo image. It looks like people have added it into their own roblox games etc.

That aside, it does highlight the fact that parents need to be careful about what their kids are watching online. I stopped my eldest watching videos on line (supervised I might add) when he managed to start watching something about Bendy and the ink machine! It doesn't take long to stray into something totally different and unsuitable online by clicking on links etc.

DS withing my earshot and visual gaze is always on the YouTube kids app. I have parental controls on to stop the search function, and he seems to get only official channels 99% of the time. I have never seen the Momo character once.

I did ask him of he had seen or heard of Momo, but this was confused for a relative with a similar nickname and there didn't seem to be any worry or uneasy feelings surrounding the name. So I have left it like that for now.

I'm convincing him more and more to use the sky kids app and his Amazon Kids tablet app that has all the programmes on he loves, so I might just delete the YouTube kids app to be honest to be on the safe side, but I'll think about it.

Thanks for the warning OP,this is the first I've heard of it.

I have to say what the fuck is wrong with some people that they'd want to show children something like that I hope whoever's put it on there gets caught and locked up for a long time!

Whilst it's really important to supervise what kids watch, especially younger kids, it is also true that the internet is a fact of life now so important to teach them to be savvy. Children aged say 8+ need to learn some self-regulation. I have always taught my children to show me if there is anything they are unsure of. I have worked with some internet safety trainers (formerly of CEOP) and their view is that outright banning, certainly for older children, is the wrong way to go as the kids are still likely to try to access the content anyway but then not tell you about anything worrying they see.

Links and screenshots please then BrookeSmith?