I’m always skeptical about stories from Facebook, but I’ve seen some things on ABC and others about this. Either way, good idea to keep tabs on what your kids are doing online. This is not new, but has been resurfacing recently. Hidden a few minutes into seemingly harmless kids videos on sites like YouTube are characters coming on screen and giving kids instructions on multiple ways to commit suicide. Some of the characters even go so far as to threaten to kill family members if the kids say anything to their parents. I haven’t seen any myself, and I know how fake news can spread like fire online and seem like it is real. Either way, as a father of two young kids this both scared the crap out of me and made me very angry. There are some really sick people on this world. So, think twice before giving your kids a phone, tablet, or computer as a distraction, especially unsupervised.
We had a discussion about this last night with our little girl in length, we try to closely monitor what she watches on YouTube for this very reason.
Same here. Having 2 very young children in today's social climate scares the crap outta me. Our daughters have tablets but are not allowed on YouTube. I've reserved the fact that our kids are going to hate us while they are teenagers just due to the fact that if I'm paying for a cell phone, I control what apps go on it and what you can and cannot do on it. I'm extremely tempted to get them "dumb" phones that cant get on the internet
That's funny because we had that discussion at the dinner table last night too. We also dont allow our kids to watch YouTube. They all have the YouTube Kids app on their devices and that's pretty censored. If they want to watch a video using YT they have to ask and use my wife's iPad in the same room as us. We also dont really let them play any games that have online communication. My boys are 10 and 11 and are probably one of the very very few kids who dont play Fortnite.
We were also having this conversation at dinner last night.. The thing that concerns me is apparently it has even crept through the YouTube kids filters.... One of the kiddos was telling us how they are allowed to watch YouTube at school or even part of assignments.. Needless to say I had a chat with the school principle this morning about my concerns. He completely agrees it’s a problem but it actually is beneficial as they are able to access content and learning material for free that the school is unable to afford due to its cost.. So my feeling are now officially mixed on the matter...
As long as the teacher watches the video in full before showing it to students, it should be fine. Wife does it all the time on the smart board, but she checks ahead of time to make sure all content is kosher. Since the curriculum that came with the classroom is quite old, she’s doing the best she can.
There's always been stories like this that pop up, no matter the generation. There's an Urban Legend that there's a secret episode of SpongeBob out there where Squidward graphically commits suicide on screen. The countless instances of "Well my coworker told me that his cousins husbands nephews best friend found a razor blade in his Halloween candy, so it has to be true." All of these stories prey on the fear of parents by corrupting things they take as safe, pointing out their inability to protect their kids from the world, and/or taking advantage of that fear of the unknown and misunderstood. There is no bigger unknown, misunderstood unshelterable force than the Internet. It leads to amazing things and horrible things. But that's life now, so of course the urban legends are going to adapt. I've watched too much kids programming for my own good. I've never seen anything sketchy. I've seen a lot of grown adults playing with toys and making ridiculous salaries, but never any of the stuff going around the rumor mill with suspiciously little proof for something I should be able to go type into YouTube and verify. I've seen plenty of "So spooky guis, come click and give me adsense" or on the news "Would you believe this new trend that all the children are doing? More on why your kids will be dead by noon, at 1 o'clock, but first an ad break, and you won't believe what this puppy did on late Tuesday..."
Same app we have but the news story I read said they the messages were going out on YouTube kids app also. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/2989749002
The internet is a giant cesspool, and over in the corner is the little bit of useful information all in a small pile.
Although in fairness, I'm not sure the world's body of knowledge was all that different before the internet either. Bad info has never been in short supply, it's just a lot more easily accessible now.
yea at fiber optic speed and people can hide behind screens and publish their sick videos with zero fear of reprisal....
Momo is a hoax? "...A YouTube spokesperson said the company has seen no evidence of Momo suicide dares spliced into content for children, and these kinds of viral “challenges” are against the company’s terms of service. “We’ve seen no recent evidence of videos promoting the Momo Challenge on YouTube. Videos encouraging harmful and dangerous challenges are against our policies,” a company spokesperson wrote on Twitter...." - NBC News
The Internet, like life, is full of people. It's raw information at the fingertips of whoever is steering the ship. Like books - For every heart warming literary tale, there's a manifesto to match it. What section of the book store are you shopping in? The Internet is the most valuable tool that we have today. A platform for the free exchange of ideas, it allows people to be exposed to ways of thought that they otherwise wouldn't be. It allows exposure to interests, and information that isn't limited by what's locally available. If I need help with math, there are resources for that. If I've never seen a tree in my life except on TV, there's YouTube videos where I can learn an appreciation for nature and woodscraft. If I don't know how to cook, I can get "private" lessons from a world famous chef. Name just about any skill and there's a place to learn it. It's a bit easy to go "No, there's bad stuff. Trash it all." But for every bad thing (that actually pans out to be true) there's a case of someone gaining access to the Internet and realizing that they were raised in a cult. There are people who learn things they got taught just aren't true."Oh just because my mom got hit when she got lippy doesn't mean it's normal." It provides a line of empathy to people on the other side of the world. It allows people a world away to send birthday cards to an old vet they've never met, and a group of people from different skill levels, occupations, ages, and locale to meet and talk as peers over a shared interest. The internet is absolutely amazing, though not without its faults, but with any luck it won't be changing anytime soon.
I don't want to get dinged for politics, so I won't link the video, but a video by a YouTube news channel named Philip DeFranco has a pretty good opening segment about it. The video is titled "STOP! The "Momo Challenge" Is a Panicky Hoax Preying On Ignorant Parents, India Pakistan, & More..." I'd recommend it for a pretty solid overview of things. They have a team of researchers who fact check everything they put out, so it's usually pretty solid with the very odd exception.
I can't find the article in the psychology journals, but the use of huge varicolored eyes is used by a lot of companies in advertising and notably by Disney and pixar and other studios. There is something about the huge round eyes that draws children in and keeps their attention and makes them feel comfortable and safe. If you look at say Elsa from Disney's "Frozen", her eyes are freakishly large compared to the rest of her body. the effect of drawing young children in and HOLDING their attention to the caricature, can be powerful enough like hypnosis. The people making this sick videos like Momo, can now insert every few frames, a single frame with disturbing content, or verbally encourage the kids to do tasks.......
This is what the message looks like, I don’t have the video but it reels them it will come at night while they are in there bed and if they slit their leg or their wrist it won’t hurt them or there parents.
It's basically a hoax. But don't let your kids have unmonitored internet access, and that includes phone apps. There are other very real potential issues parents might run into if they don't exercise extreme caution when it comes to kids and the internet. Children should be old enough to tell fact from fiction and what kind of things to be wary of or outright avoid online before they can be trusted to browse safely without a parent hovering over their shoulder.