To be a bit pissed about the school scaring my DD?

[TheBentNeckLady]

My DD's school was given a talk on 'Momo' at school and now she's petrified. Another girl cried in the assembly because she was so scared. Momo so far isn't even proven to be a real thing. A general internet safety talk can never go amiss, surely this would have sufficed?

Nope, UK

OP - The answer to your last question is, of course, YES!

The usual load of old willy. When I was a teenager it was 'playing records backwards' and video 'nasties'. Sometimes this sort of scaremongering bullshit is down to a mistake or a misunderstanding of some kind; sometimes it's revved up to induce racism or to persuade people that more prohibition, surveillance and censorship is necessary.

How incompetent must the school be to scare children by discussing internet safety (essentially)?

I thought it was a hoax? All the police warnings etc was because nobody thought to fact check.

Nope, UK

Ah ok. In the U.K., if you’re pissed it’s because you’ve been drinking.

Super, I am from the US but I live in the UK, thank you for your correction.

Depends on what they said " to make her scared"
I have school age kids. They've heard of Mono this week with all the fuss.
I've merely told them that it's a cartoon on the internet and harmless, if it pops up let me know.
Reminds me of 80s and 90s chain letter crap, that you used to sometimes get in the post -do this or so and so happens....."
No. Ignore. Bag of shite. Just let your kids know that without bag of shite comment obviously and worded appropriately lol.

OP there’s been quite a few annoyed parents round my way too about the same thing (I wonder if you are in my area lol)

I’m pissed to be fair. My children had no clue who the hell momo was. Now they do

Momo - stupid autocorrect

Dd is 7 and was upset because other dc were talking and one said her dad stabbed himself in his neck and died because of Momo. Dd was upset until she saw the dad picking up at the end of the day and realised it was a lie.

I wouldn't imagine the teachers told it in a scary way but you can't control what other dc say.

Also I’m not from the US and I used pissed for both occasions lol

I'm confused by all the mentions of "is it a hoax?", "is it real?".

It's like asking whether Pennywise (the clown from IT) is a "hoax", isn't it?

I think this is a fairly balanced article about the whole business

www.snopes.com/news/2019/02/26/momo-challenge-suicide-game/

AT 6, I really think a general internet safety discussion would have sufficed (never talk to someone you don't know over the internet, never talk to someone over the internet without your parents' knowledge, never give out any of your contact details to anyone you don't know or trust etc).

DD is 12 and this came up with her friends. She was beyond freaked out by the picture (shown to her by a friend). She was v much comforted by knowing that it's a sculpture created by a Japanese special effects company not for this purpose and someone has just stolen the photo and reused it.

We had a chat about it and I pointed out that a) she'd done the right thing by telling me, b) always tell me if something is scaring her as otherwise I can't help if I don't know, c) it is almost always true that adults are likely to have a better handle on whether things are actually worth worrying about than 12 year olds and it's still worth asking an adult even if you think they might not know and it could be another trusted adult if for some reason she did not want to ask me, d) 12 year olds are not well known for their ability to be calm and rational in the face of something scary (this made her laugh quite a lot) and e) just don't ever talk to people you don't know over the internet and nothing like this can ever happen to you (in the case of someone you don't know talking to you without your permission, the correct course of action is always to tell me immediately and block that person).

It does seem like it's a lot of fuss over nothing. I expect the school were trying to be proactive in protecting them but you're right that this is a level of detail the vast majority of them will simply not need. In the case of 6 year olds who do have unsupervised access to the internet, I suspect Momo is the least of their problems. I suspect a general 'most of this stuff is absolute nonsense and if you see anything that scares you, you should tell an adult you trust' would have sufficed for 6 year olds.

My children's school spoke to them about it on thursday- id heard nothing about it- both my children came home and told me, I did a bit of research, followed up what the school had said- both kids 7,10 absolutely fine about it..
Then yesterday morning got an email from the teacher saying sorry etc etc .... to be honest I just couldn't understand why some parents had complained. Surely we're all singing from the same hymn sheet? I phoned the school to say Thank you to the teacher, I feel she had brought something to my attention that needed it- with the best interests of the children at heart. Although this thing isn't real the event is- I just think children need to be aware of problems on social media and how to deal with them.

And if your kids are unnecessarily scared, just try to use it as a teaching moment and use the fear to point out all the ways you can help them with it (hopefully this will resonate if they do ever need your help).

Sara, I thought OP had been driven to drink by it

I can't believe people are saying its still a hoax.

YANBU I’m sending an angry email about this tomorrow. My 6 year old came home last night telling me all sorts of scary intricate details about ‘momo’ that she learned in Friday assembly along with all the scary things that might happen if she watches Peppa Pig. She has been terrified to watch anything on her tablet since (which is closer monitored, she watches bbc kids and plays a few educational games). Last night she couldn’t fall asleep because she said she was ‘thinking lots of bad thoughts because of assembly’. It’s f&£?ing ridiculous that I’m having to console my 6 year old because her teachers told her a scary story in a school.

If there are concerns about internet safety they need to be brought to parents to address at home. The fact they are terrifying children because some teacher gets all her facts from the Daily Mail is embarrassing and ridiculous, not to mention harmful.

I've seen a video of Momo overlapping a genuine Peppa Pig clip. It's the picture of momo talking really fast telling the child to cut themselves or they'll come and kill them. No mention of whatsapp but it's creepy as hell and for a small child it must be terrifying.

What I don't know is whether this is the original type of thing the police are warning about or some sick sod jumping on the momo bandwagon.

Meant to say I prefer my DCs to be warned so that if they did stumble on this they're not blind sided by it.

My dd’s School sent an email to all parents with advice and information on Momo. This was quickly followed by an email from the head, asking us not to show children the picture or discuss Momo, unless our child had any awareness of what was going on (he was concerned that discussing it would make our children more curious and more likely to search the internet for it or to be frightened). He advised that parents instead be more vigilant with what our children are viewing online.

I had discussed this with my dd the night before the email was sent out. Purely to advise that if any video she was watching suddenly changed, that she should turn it off and bring it straight to me. I did inform her that bad people were deliberately trying to frighten children into hurting themselves or doing dangerous things. I also spoke to her about not believing things just because someone says it is true. She decided only to watch videos when I am right next to her. My dd is 9 (turns 10 later in the year).

I also made sure she wouldn’t discuss this with her friends. As I didn’t want children looking it up for themselves.

Your poor little girl! I would have cuddled up on the sofa with a couple of her favourite movies, ice cream and lots of cuddles (bosies). My dd and ds were both very sensitive at 6- they both still can be but I would be mad if school hadn’t at least sent a letter home warning that they were going to discuss something so scary to a 6 year old!

My dc came home talking about this as well even though they don’t even watch you tube and hadn’t heard a thing about it. I wish our school would have sent an email instead.

Literally the only children I’ve heard of being scared by Momo, are children being scared by adults telling them about Momo

Slightly different in our case. I had told DD that there was a hoax doing the rounds and if she heard about it, just tell her friends it was a load of crap. No biggie and she was fine.

Three days later, her classmate came in and looked upset. She asked him why and he had seen the modded thing on Forrtnite and the kids online were talking about it. That day there was much chat about it and the school stepped in and spoke to the kids about it. They also sent a letter out.

Unfortunately, despite linking to the BBC piece about it being a hoax, they made out it was actually real and scared the crap out of kids and the parents who can’t be arsed to fact check.

@Hoggyt

Meant to say I prefer my DCs to be warned so that if they did stumble on this they're not blind sided by it

Me too, told mine that they see it online it's just silly stuff designed to scare, it doesn't mean anything and to tell me.