The infamous Momo Challenge game is trying to hack the shows of children on Google-owned video sharing platform YouTube. The challenge usually ends with self-harming or suicide of the player.
There have been reports claiming that it has been seen during the video of popular kid shows like Peppa Pig on YouTube. Momo Challenge character girl reportedly appeared in the middle of the episodes, asking children to hurt others and themselves.
People have taken the screenshots and posted them on all over the social media. It has invaded some of the most popular children’s shows. The shots/images have been going viral on social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.
It is much like the infamous Blue Whale Challenge, and tries to lure users to contact a user named Momo. Following the contact, the users receive graphic threats from the questionable account. It’s a form of cyber bullying spreading through social media and smartphones.
The graphic threats instruct users/players to perform a series of dangerous tasks that could result in their death. The report has come just a few days after YouTube was accused of not being able in controlling the content shown to minors on its platform.
Earlier, the application has faced backlash from users and advertisers. As a result, some of the big companies like Nestle decided not to advertise on the video app.
Reportedly, the Momo Challenge started around the web globally in 2018. Before that, in 2018 itself, the Blue Whale challenge was told to be the reason why many youngsters around the world attempted or succeeded at committing self-harm and even suicide.
Several states like Orissa and West Bengal have taken the responsibility to let parents and educational authorities know about it. They had issued advisories on the self-harming game.
Moreover, in August 2018, the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) board had requested parents to keep a close eye on their children as they are most vulnerable of falling prey to the online suicidal game.
