To tell you Huggy Wuggy isn't child friendly

[GingeryLemons]

My reception aged child has been playing "Huggy Wuggy" on the playground with friends, and is now scared to sleep by himself.

Apparently this character kills people by hugging them; it was originally in a 12+ game but it's now in Roblox games and YouTube videos, as well as in other types of games you wouldn't expect.

My ds has never played these games, but he's been exposed to it via adverts for games, as well as descriptions from friends.

I've spoken to his school today, and the teachers weren't fully aware of how scary it is and how many kids are playing it (my yr3 DD plays it with her friends too, apparently, though isn't as frightened).

This article from last month explains it better than I could - it's pretty twisted. news.sky.com/story/parents-and-schools-concerned-about-viral-huggy-wuggy-youtube-videos-12579453

(free, age appropriate games for kids seem to have these adverts, but unfortunately I can't control what he sees at his dad's house)

My ds (9) asked me if it was ok to watch these videos on YouTube so I watched a few of them with him and really couldn't see the issue ( for an almost ten year old, I can see how a 4/5 year old is different) we're careful with him because he does have nightmares but I couldn't see anything massively worrying.
I've since seen a lot of commotion about it and have told him I need to watch some more recent episodes to see if it gets scarier.

That's probably fair enough, but the stuff I've read about it is really gruesome!

My 4 year old son started watching it a few months ago. He was calling it woody woody and I had no idea what he was talking about. He never said it was scary or anything so i never put much thought into it. Then he started telling me what he looked like and I was like okay , this isn’t something he needs to watch. I don’t get why some parents are actually okay with it at a young age. He had nightmares for a while because of it. I had people tell me there are 2 versions and one of them isn’t bad and is actually kid friendly but doing research I can’t find anything related to that so I’m not sure there is.

Why on earth are you letting a 4 year old watch things without checking first?

My DS is aware of huggy wuggy and poppy playtime from other school kids but has never actually seen them himself so isn't particularly scared of them. Yes they are scary and not appropriate for the infant school age group.

You can check your YouTube Kids parental controls to block content you don't want your kids watching. If you're unsure of how to do it there are instruction videos online.