To wonder if Momo actually exists

[Mammylamb]

Have any of you actually seen it for yourself? Or is it an internet hoax?

I don’t think it matters whether it’s a hoax or not. The main thing we should be taking from this momo crap is that as parents we should all be monitoring what our kids watch online and on apps much more stringently. Hopefully it has done a positive thing to alert some folk to pay more attention to internet safety. Loads of parents I know don’t seem to give a f**k to what their kids are accessing despite guidelines to the contrary.

Momo has been around for ages. my 12 yr old knew of it last year. There was talk of someone texting you on WhatsApp with the name momo. If you replied, that meant you accepted the challenge and it began. This was from my dd and her friends.
No one they knew had any message off momo, they all knew not to reply and to block the number if they were unsure.
Nobody that I have spoke with about this has any experience of momo. Not in messages, online games or videos.
If your checking your children’s phones, and have parental controls on the apps their using plus talking about the dangers online, I personally don’t think there’s anything to worry about.
My younger dds school sent emails about it, they had an assembly on it and have now moved on. Despite some parents demanding they do more, asking for a meeting for parents, another info assembly for the children and even asking for the police to come in to school to talk with the dc! I think this just adds to it. It’s been the talk of the playground all week and that’s mainly the parents!

Witches and Wizards

Either airdrop by a daft kid in class or unsupervised access to a random YouTube video (such as the ones posted to upthread) which shouldn't be available on a school network due to the general filtering systems almost all use.

I don't believe it just randomly appeared on a networked, filtered school system on, presumably supervised using something like configurator, iPad system.

Ask the teacher what really happened

The fact is that it started as a hoax

So where is there a link to a real video where this appears in some random site or randomly pops up on a computer for no reason? Not one tagged Momo. Not one uploaded to demonstrate in the last couple of days. Not someone saying it happened. I mean a truly random innocent video where it appears.

I have a friend who's 4 year old watches YouTube Kids. She started crying hysterically and of course friend went running from the kitchen and caught the tail end of it. She said it was just horrendous and child has been very unsettled by it. She immediately reported to YouTube.
DD is 12 and we had gently told her and younger ds that for now they aren't to watch YouTube due to a hack. Unfortunately, school made a huge deal over it, and another pupil showed her and others a video of it, and told them a girl their age killed herself, and DD was very upset by it.
I can't see how YouTube are still denying it's happened and denouncing as a hoax?

I've since used it as a tool to reinforce that not everything on the net is as it appears.

I have a friend who's 4 year old watches YouTube Kids. She started crying hysterically and of course friend went running from the kitchen and caught the tail end of it. She said it was just horrendous and child has been very unsettled by it

Again, a "friend". There is NO proof that this sort of thing EVER happened randomly on any YouTube video.

@PassTheGinPlease Can you post a link to the offending video please?

My brother's nephew's best friend's dog saw it. He was watching a video about sticks and it told him to bite his owner. So it's 100% not a hoax.

Looks like it could possibly be another win for Journalism 101

twitter.com/AntonioChavezSN/status/1100477260786778113

I have no reason not to believe my friend, we're 37 and I've known her since school age 12 so sorry not a fly by night mate/acquaintance.

@PassTheGinPlease Then she won't mind telling you the name of the video to satisfy the curiosity of the thousands who have heard stories but never seen said videos?

I do believe it could 'pop up' on YouTube but not the way people are assuming. YouTube autoplays one video to the next, including YouTube kids. If you tag a video with Momo+Peppa+Pig it is not beyond the realm of possibility it would autoplay after a genuine Peppa Pig video. I haven't used YouTube kids but I know there was an issue a while ago with people starting on the kids one and then autoplay funnelling them to them to the main platform was that ever resolved?

And again, anyone can upload anything to YouTube Kids. It's moderated by bots not real people. It is not impossible that a few trolls have spliced Momo into uploads on the Kids platform. As long as the tag words and thumbnail get past the bot it would stay on until it was reported by users.

Supervise your kids on YouTube. If you can't be arsed to sit and watch half a million episodes of Peppa Pig with them buy it on DVD or pay for iPlayer or Sky on Demand or whatever but don't leave them alone to autoplay illegally uploaded videos on an AI moderated app and then whinge when they see something inappropriate.

Good lord. If parents are this dippy, what hope for the kids?!

I think this Momo was specifically invented to scare parents into not letting youtube babysit their kids

Pass. No one has hacked YouTube.
Do you have a link to the video?

I've since used it as a tool of reference that not everything on the net is not as it appears

That is so ironic given the rest of your post, it made me laugh!

Tool to reinforce* even.

You can tell by the language used when people have no idea what they're talking about. People saying YouTube has been 'hacked' or people are 'hacking' videos That's not what hacking is.

@PassTheGinPlease

That didn't happen

@Celebelly

Indeed, and people saying you "download an app" and then it starts "texting you" but it's also appearing on peppa pig etc.

I have images in my head of the face popping up alongside peppa etc on the tv show.

I watch YouTube all day, I put it on when I'm working.

I have not ever had anything like this pop up, although I think momo videos exist (I've seen them, you only have to Google it) I don't believe they are popping up randomly.

What is more likely is kids are hearing about it, searching it and scaring themselves.

I hope that CBeebies Mo Mo can maintain her career after this.

I’m kind of living for the memes right now though, won’t lie 😂

My friend's DS saw it and it made him kill his bonsai kitten :(

Chinny reckon.