To wonder if Momo actually exists

[Mammylamb]

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

Frankiestein402 DDLC is not aimed at children. There's a warning that it's not suitable for children on both the developer's website and Steam. The latter also has it tagged as 'psychological horror'.

@PrancingP ... I know. That was my point.

Thats how momo is in the videos. It's not in official peppa pig videos. It's in videos that are made or uploaded by anyone. There is no hacking

Well yes, but those people would not put momo in the title or the tags would they. The whole idea is that kids AND parents think it's just an innocuous peppa video!

Agree that ddlc has a warning but its not as prominent as the free download - and the online video gameplay recordings are not flagged - IMHO both the concept and its realisation are warped - the designer stated that he wanted to 'shock'
My problem is that the initial presentation and appearance are very attractive to the 9-11yr old girl cohort.

"Momo" is actually a statue made for a specialist art exhibit in Japan, it was modelled after a creature from Japanese folklore called an ubume, supposed to be the spirits of women who died in childbirth looking for their babies.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubume

It's sometimes depicted as a birdlike creature and that's how the original statue was modelled, it has chickens' legs. The picture used for the meme is taken at an angle that makes it look more like a distorted human.

It wasn’t a thing until all the schools sent home letters about it without envelopes. Now it’s a thing.

Our school did a general ‘stay safe online and don’t worry about silly stuff that isn’t real’ assembly.

Our school did a general ‘stay safe online and don’t worry about silly stuff that isn’t real’ assembly.

If schools were covering the curriculum correctly, especially in terms of online safety, there should be no need for such 'special' assemblies.

Online Safety occurs is all English National Curriculum documents and should be included whenever computers, iPads, tablets and other online technology is used. Children should know how to navigate the internet safely, have clear guidelines of what they can and can't do online at school, be supervised in an age appropriate manner, and they should also know what to do and who to tell if there is an issue.

If this is done properly - and not just through an Online Safety awareness day - then special assemblies aren't needed. It would just be a thing covered throughout the year, especially when about to spend time online.

I don't know what its all about but my 12yr old daughter saw a picture of it and ended up sleeping in my bed for 2 nights because she was so scared.
She understands that it is rubbish but the picture has really freaked her out.

She claims that a few of a friends have seen it whilst watching Youtube videos

So I thought I had managed to keep it hidden from my daughter but she found out yesterday about it. Woke me up at 3am petrified.

So annoyed its been fed through the media!

Hoax/viral basically but in a related vein there is an innocuous looking game out there 'doki doki literature club' that appears to be a well drawn story / interaction but suddenly springs suicide of all the characters - appears yr5-yr7 friendly but is most definitely not.

The game literally comes with a warning that it's "not suitable for children or those who are easily disturbed".

Well, the teacher in my DS class thought it appropriate to show the kids the momo picture today.
They're 9.
I'm fucking livid.

She claims that a few of a friends have seen it whilst watching Youtube videos

Possibly searching for it after the hype.

If schools were covering the curriculum correctly, especially in terms of online safety, there should be no need for such 'special' assemblies.

I can assure you that our school covers it fully thank you. This assembly was in response to the hysteria that some children brought into the school with them yesterday morning. At no point was Momo mentioned by name so that children who didn’t know anything about it didn’t google it.

Situations like this need to be addressed there and then to stop them getting out of hand.
You can’t sit there and say ‘well they know all about internet safely so it’s fine’.

The thing with MOMO , yes it exists.
It began with a piece of art stolen in Japan 4 years ago and distorted to use to infiltrate kids on Whattsapp , it would try to illicit information and ask them questions and lay down a suicide challenge.
Recently it has infiltrated You Tube Kids , the sick distorted bulging eyed scary female avatar pops up on clips from as inocouos as Peppa Pig , Roblox , Royal High and various others .It s either hacked or lifeted clips, cut spliced with the MOMO Aavatar and it’s sickening threats.
It is incredibly sinister as it disgustingly commands children to harm themselves or others that if they don’t their parents etc will be killed,.
As adults we can all minimise this as trolling or whatever and the cynical eye rolling of the press picking up on it but the psychological effect on children is awful.
My 6 yr old child heard about it at school the other day an boy in the upper year had it popped up and asked him to get a knife and cut his wrists open or his parents would be killed, many children inc mine have been totally traumatised by this MOMO.
To the extent of not sleeping, crying , nightmares.Young children are not emotionally equipped to deal with this type of horror.

You Tube remain in a state of inertia and only made a public response to it a couple of days ago, admonishing responsibility.
It is all well and good to keep saying you should watch what your children see but it is impossible unless you are by there side and even then still cannot prevent a hack or pop up , once a child has seen something horrific like that it’s an engram... imprinted on the brain.
Sadly children are not safe in their own homes , and forgetting the hysteria etc , the multi billion pound tech companies our kids use and watch need to do more. As an adult I wouldn’t watch a horror film of this nature by choice, young children exposed to this detritus and simply can’t deal with these at their tender years.
It has been reported over and over by people , it is still happening, if clever evil people can access this technology to cause harm then the tech giants making all the profit must be do more about it. Wether it is an uphill battle or not.

Sorry Frankiestein402, just saw your reply to BorderlineExperimental.

My problem is that the initial presentation and appearance are very attractive to the 9-11yr old girl cohort.

That might be so, but anime in general tends to look like that and I'd argue that a good majority of those are nowhere near suitable for anyone under 16. Besides, especially for that age range, I think the onus is still on parents to properly screen games and the like before allowing their children full access. Information and awareness are your friends.

🤦🏻‍♀️ strivingforjustice

I notice no one has said ‘yes this happened to my child as I was supervising their internet access.’ Only ‘this happened to my friend’s nephew’.

It’s bullshit.

@strivingforjustice no ....

My 6 yr old child heard about it at school the other day an boy in the upper year had it popped up and asked him to get a knife and cut his wrists open or his parents would be killed,

A while ago our school got broken into. Nothing was really taken as all the internal doors were locked and the alarm went off.
The police where there and the window was still broken by the time the children had arrived.

By morning break the story circulating was that it was a gang of 6 men who had broken in, they had taken all the laptops in the trolly in hurt a member of staff, who coincidentally wasn’t in that day.

Schools are dreadful rumour mills. Children will make stuff up just for shits and giggles.
I am willing to bet that the kid who said it popped up and told him to do stuff made that up.

BBC finally posting that it is fake news.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47393510

The phase will pass eventually. I'm sure this one has been around before a few years ago.

I was asked to address this with an after school club I run. One child was really scared, and his mum wasn't sure how to reassure him.

It's a hoax. To shock people to understand online risks. There's an article about it in today's online Guardian. There's a lot worse out there.

Surely there must be hundreds of ‘momo’ profiles now on WhatsApp etc with the creepy picture purely because of all the hype in the press? Ditto videos with the image popping up or whatever.

From having a little research it does seem that it’s mostly a hoax that has been blown out of proportion by the press.