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Original poster

Momo - To delete YouTube for all

287 replies

carrywatermelons · 25/02/2019 08:53

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?

OP posts:
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7
MrsFoxPlus4 · 25/02/2019 23:51

I asked my 7 year old if he’d seen it and he said no but his friends at school have had. He doesn’t really use his iPad anyways he’s not big on screentime.

seething1234 · 26/02/2019 00:04

YouTube is rife with cartoons/videos aimed at kids but are disturbing. This thread on reddit will give you a good idea of the stuff out there www.reddit.com/r/ElsaGate/

Dh caught our 5 year old watching a peppa pig video that kept chanting suicide and had really weird stuff. The aren't allowed watch TV through YouTube but one evening we were lax and older ds was looking up something about volcanosome and we all left the room and ds found "funny peppa pig videos"

Kneehigim · 26/02/2019 00:05

What is this thing? Is it like a virus ad that appears in videos or wtf?

ethelfleda · 26/02/2019 00:10

Jeez. I’m not looking forward to seeing what shit will be doing the rounds when DS is older. I already feel like banning screens until he is 26! Grin

Sammy900 · 26/02/2019 00:30

Don't even look it up on youtube it's horrible, I just tried to search for videos about it and people who have tried to and a lot of those are tricks too ...I turned it off....that face is stuff of nightmares brrrrh

DoJo · 26/02/2019 00:50

To the horrified PP who said 8yos shouldn’t be watching YouTube unsupervised, what exactly do you mean? That you should watch it with them or pre watch every video before allowing them to watch?

For me, that is exactly what it means. Mine watch when I am in the room, unless it's an official channel or similar, and even then I have disabled autoplay to avoid similar but not appropriate videos to sneak through, but also because I don't want them mindlessly watching whatever comes on rather than actively choosing to watch something that they like and/or are interested in.

They have free reign of other, more restricted channels, but not Youtube - it's honestly not that hard! I'm not saying that to be judgemental - if anything, I sometimes wonder if I'm a bit overly totalitarian about it, but it does mean I can be absolutely sure that nothing like this has popped up while they are watching and that if it did I would know and be able to deal with it swiftly and without any fear that they might be hiding something from me.

haba · 26/02/2019 00:58

To the posters who said YouTube should police what is uploaded.... the main problem with that is the sheer volume of material uploaded every day. So as an example in one minute, 300 hours worth of video is uploaded. How could they have enough staff to view/vet all that material?

enidalton · 26/02/2019 01:08

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IAmNotAWitch · 26/02/2019 01:33

This really isn't that hard.

Don't let little kids on the internet unsupervised.

Mine 9 year old just doesn't have access to YouTube or social media. If he wants to play an online game, all potential interaction (so chat boxes etc) are turned off. If they can't be, he doesn't play it.

He doesn't appear traumatised by this.

The internet is EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE - I can't see any reason to allow everyone access to my kid.

ClaireElizabethBeuchampFraser · 26/02/2019 01:41

I want to reinforce what Brooke has just said, my carer came in today and told me that one of her friends had posted about her 6 yo dd watching disturbing content about Momo on YouTube kids. Her dd had been having nightmares and waking up screaming in the middle of the night. She believed it was just nightmares until her dd told her that she was going to stab her. When she watched the video history she was horrified with what she found.

I have spoken to both my 11 yo and 9 yo, neither had heard of it but now know that if ANYTHING seems out of the ordinary forwhat they are watching to shut the video down completely and show me.

Ilnome · 26/02/2019 01:53

If your child has an ipad or tablet look for the YouTube kids app - this will filter content appropriately

enidalton · 26/02/2019 04:07

a carer said about a friends friend of a friend's daughter who said she was going to stab her.

If this is true, said daughter is a fucked up kid, who didnt just threaten to stab her because of a clip that flashed up on youtube.

Its basically trying to scare crap parents from being crapper parents by letting watch what they want on youtube. Use some common sense and you won't have a child that copies crazy killers off the telly.

Lalakels · 26/02/2019 04:18

You know what? I agree that we should all be supervising all of the time. But those who are nailing that can sit back and relax and the rest of the parents who have too many screens available and sneaky kids and may be horribly aware that they are not doing enough but when they try, they are the worst people EVER because genuinely a lot of the other kids parents don’t seem to give a shit and aren’t ‘totally ruining their kids lives!...’ (ps I hate you mum etc etc).... Anyway - I’ve embraced this as an excuse to be a total bitch mum and ban you tube - primarily because I don’t believe I can 💯 police it. However i’ve looked it up and it’s apparently so last year and not officially linked with much by way of police reports. Usual media hype.... My biggest fears remain with Tik Tok, Snapchat and the like

MarshaBradyo · 26/02/2019 06:09

Specifics rather than the all encompassing threat would be good

So a YouTube channel with content for children with billions of views and subscribers in the millions are not going to be affected? Eg a popular science channel or even a silly review thing with millions of subscribers - at what point to people determine a channel to be safe?

Unless they are hacked (are people saying this is possible?) it’s not going to feature

Stuff like the science content is good and more in-depth and interesting. Tbh I don’t want any image to be seen before I get to turn it off, I don’t even want to see it

As for Peppa Pig which we don’t watch
surely CBeebies iPlayer is better for any children’s show like that

MissionItsPossible · 26/02/2019 06:46

If your child has an ipad or tablet look for the YouTube kids app - this will filter content appropriately

No it won’t...

RoboticSealpup · 26/02/2019 06:52

@Ilnome It really won't. And don't listen to the smartasses who say there's nothing sinister about those bootleg "kids' videos" either. Some of them are seriously bloody disturbing.

downcasteyes · 26/02/2019 07:21

I think these things are best dealt with head on. Just tell them, in simple factual terms, that the internet is a wonderful tool but can also be used by silly people who try to scare children because they are stupid and think that is funny. Don't lend it power by saying 'bad people' or treating it like it is genuinely scary. Tell them that if they see anything that worries or frightens them, they are to come straight to you and talk about it, but that there is nothing to be afraid of in reality.

haba · 26/02/2019 07:24

YouTube children's app still has dodgy content. What a ridiculous suggestion to use that.

FallenSky · 26/02/2019 07:47

I really don't think some people understand how YT works. There are a few ways this Momo thing could be happening.

1 - Somebody has created an advert with momo, this is hard to supervise as ads are generally random and won't necessarily be duplicated if two people watch the same video on different devices. This is the least likely explanation as has been mentioned, ads are expensive and I genuinely can't imagine anybody paying for a 30ish second clip of a random doll in the hope it'll scare a few kids.

2 - There are videos on YT that seem innocent but halfway through it changes to Momo. This is entirely possible, in fact I could edit a video exactly like that today and upload it extremely easily. If this is the case the video would be exactly the same for everybody who views it and you would be able to send the link to whoever you want and they would see momo as well. This is very likely, there are lots and lots of disturbing videos on YT. If you don't want your DC to see anything unsuitable then they shouldn't have free access to YT because it's almost impossible to completely block anything dodgy. Lots of good suggestions above including pre screening videos or allowing access to official or preapproved channels only.

3 - This is a result of chinese whispers and pranks which result in mass hysteria. Chain mail has been around for donkeys years. The amount of crap I see shared on FB by seemingly sensible people who believe whatever they read is amazing. Fact check people.

Ultimately, the Internet is going nowhere and the best thing we can do for our DC is educate them on the safest way to navigate it and to know they can talk to an adult if they see anything that worries them.

Fairylea · 26/02/2019 08:02

I think if your child is old enough to be watching stuff unsupervised on You Tube they should be old enough to talk to them about this and explain it’s not real / what the backstory is / that it’s just idiots. If you can’t do that then I really don’t think your child should be browsing the internet alone.

Ds is nearly 7 and we have discussed Momo with him. He hasn’t actually seen it anywhere online but came home asking about it as people had been talking about it at school. We explained it wasn’t real and was just a sculpture someone has made and showed him the photos where you can see it’s just a “thing”. He was totally unbothered and actually laughed and said it looks silly.

But I guess this is where “knowing your own child” comes into it - because I know ds isn’t frightened of anything really. He loves zombies (not horror film type ones but the milder, minecraft type ones) and loves to be a bit scared of things. He never has nightmares over stuff or becomes terrified by something he’s seen. He knows the difference between something being “real” and something being fake and he also knows ghosts and monsters are not real.

In fact the only thing I can think of him ever being scared of was a film clip he’d seen of a shark on the telly one night when he came down wanting a drink and he realised sharks were real!

I think everyone needs to be more open with their kids about the various idiots and nasty people on the internet. Knowledge is power.

gkite0202 · 26/02/2019 08:37

I've just seen a video of the picture of the person with bulging eyes. It popped up half way through a video of peppa pig.
It's a little girl singing "momo, momo is going to kill you. She'll be beside your bed, I don't lie" Shock

RoboticSealpup · 26/02/2019 08:46

@gkite0202 Link? Also "popped up" how? A pop-up, or had the video been edited?

gkite0202 · 26/02/2019 08:49

Looks like the video has been edited to include it

ReaganSomerset · 26/02/2019 08:52

@gkite0202

Link or it didn't happen

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