The Momo Challenge is not real: how can parents handle hoaxes on the internet?

NEW YORK – Parents' latest panic on social media – regarding a so-called challenge for children to perform prejudicial tasks – stresses the importance of establishing an open dialogue with children and leveraging parental controls online.

Warnings about the "Momo Challenge" have swept Facebook and other social media in recent days, as parents worried about so-called videos that encourage children to hurt themselves or perform activities. Other harmful tasks such as lighting stoves without telling their parents. Parental warnings were accompanied by a disturbing image of a smiling creature with tangled hair and bulging eyes.

But the challenge is considered a hoax. It is not known how many videos exist or how far they have circulated, in children or elsewhere. Some videos could have been made in response to the media attention around the challenge. Meanwhile, the image of the grimacing creature would be after a Japanese sculpture.

The fact-checking site Snopes said the challenge had appeared for the first time in the middle of 2018 due to suicide reports with no real evidence. YouTube said it has received "no recent evidence of videos showing or promoting the Momo Challenge" on its service.

So why panic? Experts say child-centered Internet hoaxes exploit parents' fears about protecting their children online and beyond. In addition to the concern about "screen time" in general, there are certainly many problematic videos that kids should not watch. It's hard for parents to control everything kids do online.

"All moral panics feed on a certain degree of reality, but then they become disproportionate," said Steve Jones, a professor of communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

These hoaxes echo the panic of past decades, just like the 1980s' false belief that teens were hearing satanic messages in the lyrics of rock songs, he said.

"Once the Internet is involved in the mix, things speed up and become more common," Jones said.

The most important thing parents can do is to establish an open dialogue with their children about what they see online and hear from other children, said Jill Murphy, Editor-in-Chief of Common Sense Media , a nonprofit group based in San Francisco. focused on children's use of media and technology.

"Parents are increasingly frustrated to feel surprised or caught off guard by what is being put in front of their children," she said. Whether the "challenges" are real or not, she said, "they raise the idea that they may or may not know exactly what their children are absorbing through these platforms."

That's why it's important to talk to children, she said. "Take the right time to have a conversation geared to your age and help your children understand that everything on the internet is not real."

She added that parents should also take advantage of parental settings embedded in many products and services. Most web browsers can block certain websites, limit what children can see, and provide a report of what a child visits. Smartphones and tablets can limit screen time and access to applications. YouTube Kids allows parents to disable search and turn off "auto play". Murphy said that these free tools are sufficient; no need to pay for third-party parenting apps.

Another option is to download program or channel applications directly rather than streaming services such as YouTube. PBS, Peppa Pig, Nick Jr. and other popular children's services have their own apps, with pre-selected videos deemed appropriate for children.

And while this may sound contradictory, going online to search for hoaxes could also help. Momo's hoax was debunked pretty quickly after people questioned him, Jones said. Give weight to reliable sources of information and fact-checking sites such as Snopes.com.

"Breathe deeply and go online as strange as it sounds," he said. "Do some research and try to find out for yourself."