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After rumors that an avatar nicknamed "Momo" would incite children and teenagers to perform dangerous tasks, including violence and suicide, Momo was quickly dismissed as a viral hoax. Yet it is back in the news and the phenomenon has left some young English scared and lose their sleep while cooling the American homes.
The demystification – again – is underway.
A Forbes report this week indicates that the Internet challenge, which usually comes with a "grotesque bird's head with warnings about children being encouraged to harm themselves or kill themselves", has been overhyped .
"I spent the last two days talking with academics, child protection professionals and online security experts to understand what parents really need to know about the Momo Challenge and what is the best action to take, "wrote contributor Andy Robertson. "Evidence of direct harm caused by the game has not yet been found. It's essentially a story of viral ghosts. Rather than sharing warnings that perpetuate and mythologize the story, it's best to give positive advice to children, configure the technology appropriately and take an interest in their online interactions. "
Here is an introduction:
What is the Momo Challenge?
Reports began to appear during the summer, as children saw the challenge appear on Facebook, YouTube and even in video games. Although it has been widely described as a hoax, the challenge has recently resumed its actuality. Fox News reports that "the ugly" Momo suicide game "has attracted attention after it started spreading on WhatsApp, prompting police warnings.If players fail to meet the challenges of the game, they receive the threatening messages of an avatar nicknamed Momo, a woman looking like a bird whose eyes stick out of her head, who says the user will be cursed with a "bad luck". "
Where does it come from?
"The animal-eyed girl with tangled hair and wraithl-like limbs associated with Momo is actually a sculpture made by Keisuke Aisawa of Link Factory, a Japanese company that makes horror movie props and effects. special ", according to Rolling Stone. "The sculpture was on display at a show at the Gen (Vanilla) Gallery, a gallery in the Ginza district of Tokyo, in August 2016. With its bird-shaped claws, it could be seen in the air. Inspire from the Japanese bird, or ubume, a figure resembling a wraith who would have died during childbirth. "
How have businesses and authorities reacted?
When the challenge started appearing in the popular video game "Minecraft" last year, Microsoft quickly tried to limit the damage and calm everyone down. The grotesque image associated with "Momo" appeared in the form of an avatar, or "mod", in the video game, and she would pursue the players while holding a cellphone with the icon WhatsApp. "This content, which was developed independently by a third party, does not match our values and is not part of the official game of Minecraft," said a spokesman for Microsoft at the time. "This is an abuse of the platform and we are taking steps to restrict access to the mod."
On Wednesday, YouTube publicly commented on the topic tweeting: "We want to clarify something about the Momo Challenge: we have not seen any recent evidence of videos promoting the Momo Challenge on YouTube. Videos promoting harmful and dangerous challenges are against our policies. "
The company explained in more detail in a blog post: "Many of you have shared with us their concerns over the last few days about the Momo Challenge – we have paid close attention to these reports. After much criticism, we have not seen any recent evidence of videos promoting the Momo Challenge on YouTube. Videos promoting harmful and dangerous challenges clearly go against our policies, including the Momo Challenge. Despite press reports of this challenge, we have never reported any links recently reported or shared with us on YouTube that violate our community rules.
"It's important to note that we allow creators to chat, report, or educate people about the Momo challenge / character on YouTube," the blog continued. "We've seen screenshots of videos and / or thumbnails of this character, but to clarify, it's not against our policies to include the Momo character image on YouTube. image is not allowed on the YouTube Kids app and we are putting in place protection mechanisms to exclude it from YouTube Kids content. "
According to The Verge, YouTube also does not show ads on videos about the recent resurgence of the Momo Challenge, even those from reputable media and commentators of popular creators. Several news agencies, including CBS, ABC, CNN, Fox and local affiliates, have downloaded segments on Momo, but these videos are not monetized.
What do cybersecurity experts say?
Wayne Willcox, director of Applied Cyber Education at Georgia Southern, told Fox News that it was necessary to shed light on the trend before anyone was hurt or killed because of the hoax. "The danger is that there is only one incident in the United States, for example, and that a child sees it and a child shows up and gets hurt, or if get hurt and we do not have a conversation about it and we do not make parents aware of it, do not we do a disservice to our children? He asked. "That's the problem, you see so many cases where there are tragedies and all of a sudden we're talking about it, it's a case where we do not have the tragedies and we talk about them."
Are there precedents for this type of Internet hoax?
Yes. TheBayNet, a community information site based in Maryland, reported last year that "it all started with Blue Whale, an online phenomenon that claimed the lives of about 130 teenagers in Russia. This challenge involved an unknown administrator who contacted teens via social media and gave them a task every day for 50 days. Although the tasks start quite harmlessly (watch a scary video, draw a whale on a piece of paper), they quickly degenerate into self-mutilation and on the 50th day, the player is asked to commit suicide. This is the challenge that swept over Russia's most popular social media network, VKontakte, in 2016. "
The suicide game Momo was also compared to Elsagate, a phenomenon on YouTube at the end of 2017 that targeted young children and included popular characters such as Elsa from "Frozen" in videos containing violence, sexual situations and drugs. As the public became aware of troubling events, YouTube began deleting the content of Elsagate.
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© 2019, the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, California)
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