From FULL FACT:
‘This past week, the UK media has been filled with chilling reports about the sinister “Momo challenge”: supposedly an “evil suicide game” where a creepy-looking female character appears on children’s screens (messaging them on WhatsApp, or appearing in the middle of seemingly-harmless games or videos) and “challenges” them to commit dangerous acts, including acts of self-harm.
We have seen no clear evidence that anyone has actually been subject to the Momo challenge as described above, either in the UK or abroad. Children’s charities and other experts in the field have described the Momo challenge as a hoax, and several media organisation—including i News, The Guardian, and The Atlantic—have done a good job of debunking it and explaining the background of the story.
Yet while there are now a number of organisations pouring cold water on Momo, the story has had a significant impact on many children and parents.
Media reporting of the supposed Momo challenge has led to police organisations and safety experts publishing advice to parents on the threat posed by Momo and how to avoid it. This in turn has fuelled yet more media coverage.
In response numerous schools have emailed warnings to parents about the supposed threat (Full Fact has reviewed a number of these emails, from both primary and secondary schools). Some schools have even held assemblies to tell their pupils about Momo. One parent told Full Fact that their primary school-age son “had never heard of it [before the assembly] and came home saying that ‘people on the internet were going to try and get him to turn the oven on in the middle of the night’.”
The parent added: “The fact they told the children specific challenges they might be given really worries me—it’s like planting ideas and an excuse for carrying them out.”
Here we’ll draw out the extreme level of media coverage devoted to Momo, in comparison to the dearth of evidence that it actually exists.’
