The ‘Momo Challenge’ is making the rounds across social media once more, after going viral in early 2016. I have received several phone calls and Facebook messages from parents extremely concerned after learning that their children have been watching Youtube videos of the “Momo Challenge.”

What is the Momo Challenge?

The challenge stems from a ‘Mother Bird’ sculpture fashioned by Japanese artist Keisuke Aisawa in 2016, which some malicious suspects are utilizing on Youtube, Facebook, and Whatsapp to convince children to self-harm.

Similar to other chain-mail schemes, recipients of a Momo message, are encouraged to undertake various tasks to avoid a potential ‘curse.’ Some of these tasks escalate to include self-harm and generally end with Momo asking children to commit suicide. Given the challenge’s mysterious origins and the unreliability of news reports linking it to actual harm, some question whether it’s simply another one of the many hoaxes that propagate on the Internet.

Officials in multiple countries believe Momo’s final challenge is suicide and the game is rumored to be linked to at least three recent cases of minors who killed themselves in Argentina, Colombia, and India. I have not found credible cases of children in the United States who have hurt themselves after watching the Momo videos. Regardless, it is creepy to be sure and concerning. Very young children who are seeing these videos are understandably scared and confused. Teens are less likely to look at this as anything more than a boogeyman story or another in an ongoing trend in scary video games like Five Nights at Freddy’s, Granny, Slenderman and Bendy, and the Ink Machine. Children are drawn to the horror-taboo nature of the image of the Momo character. Like the Killer Clowns trend, these are the ghost stories of the digital age.

What Parents Should Do

Parents and educators can better help children by teaching ...