What is Momo ?, The Mysterious Viral Challenge

One day, while I was paused, an anonymous user (I only had the number) appeared among my WhatsApp contacts. In his profile picture, a fright, "says Mario Martinez, a 19-year-old Mexican who lives in the country by phone line.And it's the modus operandi of Momo, the recent viral challenge of WhatsApp that seeks to terrorize the user.How? with a text that threatens to contact us again and torment us if we refuse to call this number.The challenge is, indeed, to call Momo for what we sends images or violent threats Then these same images have to be transmitted to the contacts.

Just looking at their image causes terror. And this image of a woman with piercing eyes, a nasty smile and disheveled black hair makes, almost imperatively, that the person who falls into the game engages a conversation with a stranger not to fall supposedly into a curse 19659002] A threat badysis on the web, published in the newspaper El Mundo, notes that "the most role is that the +81 prefix belongs to someone located in Japan, even though presumably who is behind the number is able to speak in multiple languages ​​and start a conversation. They even claim that Momo responds with macabre predictions of the future or guessing our personal information.

Martinez says that he did not comply with a directive "simply because he suppressed and blocked the small suggestion" before receiving his first greeting. According to some complaints made in various forums, the WhatsApp message that accompanies the description of the character, is in Japanese and means "People call me L."

The recurring recommendation, when asked about this challenge, is to immediately block contact and install an antivirus to detect the presence of any threat.

Are we so exposed on social networks or on our social platforms? Are we exposed to harbadment, extortion, intimidation and violation of privacy?

And this online urban legend creates all sorts of hoaxes, kidnappings of minors to allegedly unexplained deaths, without official confirmation. As a result, the case ended up worrying authorities in some Latin American countries who had to act in this area. For example, in Mexico, the Attorney General of Tabasco State issued a bulletin warning of the dangers of the challenge: "The risk of this challenge among young people and minors is that criminals can use this game to remove or steal personal information; to incite suicide or violence; harbad, extort; generate physical and psychological disorders such as anxiety, depression, insomnia … "

While in Chile, the civilian police warned of the dangers of this game compared to the case of the Blue Whale

On the other hand, in Panama, psychologist Annelis Torrealba calls on parents to "be vigilant" about the actions of their children on social networks. "Chatter has become, in some cases, a dangerous vice," he admits

. For Torrealba, patients with emotional disorders can develop destructive behaviors that would be evident in this type of challenge. "We need to be aware of these isolated, hostile or rebellious teenagers – they are the ones who fall into these troubling games."

In recent years, we have seen challenges on the web ranging from water throwing icy, inhalation of condoms, tattooing of an animal in the forearm. the blue whale "which led to the suicide of some teens.

In a television program in Peru, journalist Jesús Veliz highlighted the risk of online gaming and the power of the Internet." The digital age is the new way for children, and what happens is becoming relevant: Talking and letting a child or teenager speak is the key to strengthening family ties.Every year, a similar event occurs, as "The blue whale." That's why family dialogue is important, "he concludes

THE ORIGIN OF MOMO, AN ASIAN CULTURE

L & # 39; Unit Investigating Computer Crime, an entity dedicated to the study of this case.In particular in Latin America, it states that "Momo" is a sculpture that represents a woman-bird and that is exposed at the Vanilla Gallery in Tokyo, dedicated to modern art and who collects s open samples inspired by fear. In fact, it is so famous that in social networks you can find many images of people who have been photographed with the work and its artist, Midori Hayashi.