Momo reborn, the dangerous Internet challenge that encourages children and adolescents to commit suicide

A new case of suicide attempt was unveiled in Edinburgh a few days ago when Lyn Dixon warned that his only eight-year-old son was forced to drive a knife into his neck because the character of Momo had ordered it.

His son was the most recent case of children left hanging by the "Momo Challenge", a WhatsApp game, Facebook, YouTube and other online platforms that encourage children to relieve themselves or even commit suicide.

"It started when He did not want to climb the stairs just because it was dark up there. He was terrified and did not sleep in his own bedDixon told his son about the newspaper The herald.

"We reached the bottom and explained that it was not real. He showed me a picture of the face (of Momo) on my phone and said that he had told her to go to the kitchen drawer and take out a knife and put it on his neck", abounded the mother of the child who received the messages with the" challenge ".

"We told him that there was a lot of garbage and that there are bad people doing bad thingsbut it's scary, really scary, "said the mother who urged parents to talk with their children about these types of viral problems in the world.

This challenge encourages children to take action that suits them. they mistakenly consider them "imprudent" but they really ordered them to harm themselves or to commit suicide, gradually isolated from the world.

At the end of July 2018, a 12-year-old girl has committed suicide by hanging on a tree in her modest home in the city from the Maschwitz engineer, Escobar party in Argentina, from the province of Buenos AiresThe authorities considered that he had performed this act as "an extreme test" of the Momo game after finding evidence relating to this viral problem.

Another French father complained to the State Department in November after his son's suicide.

The Belgian public prosecutor's office reported in November 2018 that a 13-year-old boy was a victim of the "Momo Challenge" and hanged.

A spokesperson for NSPCC Scotland (Fighting for Children in Scotland)
Fighting for Children-) said: "The ever-changing digital world means a constant influx of new apps and games, so it's hard for parents to follow up, so it's important for parents to talk these applications and games and the potential risks to which they may be exposed, "the portal Dayli Mail.

"The NSPCC publishes tips and guidance for parents on online safety with their kids, as well as Net Aware, the only guide for parents in the UK on social media and gaming applications."

The Japanese special effects company Link Factory created this strange character, but they claimed he was not involved in the online suicide game, the authorities believe that there are various people who might not be connected to each other who could perform these acts, as was the case with La Ballena Azul.

In Mexico, variations in risk "challenges" have been detected

After detecting a case of disappearance and subsequent location in November 2018 of a teenager in Tabasco, who was urged to participate in a "challenge" of disappearance, the authorities urged parents to remain vigilant and maintain an ongoing dialogue about what their children see on the Internet.

It's about the so-called viral challenge of "48 hours", a derivative of the so-called "game 72" that was born in 2013 and was popular in Australia, Canada and the UK, urging youth to go 24, 48 and even 72 hours to have their families issue a search alert. Win that summarizes the most hopeless messages.

Also detected another dangerous viral challenge that puts adolescents' lives at risk The game of death or the game of the hangman, which consists in inciting the participants to suffocate With arms or hands as long as possible, the lack of oxygen creates special sensations, which his followers compare to a rise in power, although this is not real because they can affect death by asphyxiation.

The State Secretary for Public Security of Durango State has alerted family members of children and adolescents so that they are attentive to what their children consume on social networks in order to avoid putting their lives and those of other children at risk.