Specialists and experts have warned against the "Momo" game, which encourages children to commit suicide or threatens them with death, similar to the "Blue Whale" game, which has recently spread on social media platforms, and international press reports monitored that a number of children lost their lives, as a result of Momo game.
Families confirmed to «Emirates Today» their great concern for their children about the impact of this game, calling on the competent authorities to ban it, in order to preserve the safety of society.
While the Ministry of Interior stated that it is following with interest the spread of electronic games, which promote violence and suicide among children and young people through virtual instructions, and their impact on the behavior of their users, warning against leaving children to play such games, without follow-up to protect them from their dangers.
Emirates Today monitored many websites and online game stores promoting the game "Momo", and links to download it on phones, iPads and computers, and one of the pages on "Facebook" addressed the children by saying: "(Momo) A surprise for you, you will love it. Whoever wants it writes (Momo)”, while she tried to thrill the children in another post, by saying, “Hello, my friends, did you miss me?”, Showing a scary picture stained with blood.
Another page demanded not to talk to anyone, to listen to 10 sad songs, to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night without any lights with screams, to wake up at three o'clock, and to watch a horror movie, and it found interaction from some children, as one of the girls watching showed The page has a picture of her cutting her arteries.
For their part, parents of students in nurseries and kindergartens reported that their children were exposed to frightening and terrifying scenes while watching TV in the classroom, as the educational programs in these nurseries require children to watch TV for at least two hours a day under the pretext of teaching them the language. And help them to pronounce properly.
The mother of a three-year-old, Salwa Hassan, stated that her son expressed to her his great fear of the monster appearing to him, adding: “When I asked him about the reason for his fear and about the monster he meant, he told me that he saw one of the scary scenes while watching TV in the nursery. And I asked the nursery not to show such scenes to the children.
While a mother of a child (three and a half years old), Magda Ahmed, indicated that her son told her that he had watched “Momo”, in one of the cartoon programs in the nursery, indicating that she had reviewed the nursery, and asked for a list of the names of the children’s series that are shown, and she was surprised That the show is directly through the “YouTube Kids” application, without any review or intervention from the class teacher, to block the scary games.
The parents of the students: Ahmed Salah, Maram Saeed, Ghada Islam, and Iman Jamal called for the need to organize the process of displaying programs inside nurseries and kindergartens, and for the competent regulatory authorities to supervise nurseries and schools to determine the permitted programs and license their presentation, to ensure that they do not infiltrate Misconceptions of children, or endangering their psychological well-being, especially since their children watch daily “cartoon” children’s series in the classroom, and are strongly affected by them, and try to imitate them.
While teachers in Abu Dhabi nurseries (who requested that their names not be published) confirmed that they had received instructions from those in charge of the nurseries in which they work, to prevent the operation of “YouTube Kids”, after warnings spread about the appearance of the “Momo Challenge” in cartoon clips for children, and not to Playing children's series on the Internet, after observing inappropriate scenes in the series, and the spread of warnings on the Internet regarding the presence of a terrifying image that appears in cartoon clips for children under the name "Momo Challenge", targeting young people, and asking them to do things that pose a danger to them.
The teachers indicated that the nurseries replaced the direct presentation method with pre-recorded cartoon series for children's favorite characters, but they were reviewed to ensure their positive educational content, and that they are free of any unsuitable scenes for children.
Rakan Hawamdeh (Jordanian) told Emirates Today that he and his wife were shocked when they found out that their daughter, Jannat, had drawn a drawing very close to the game "Momo", and when they asked her how to identify the character of this picture, she told them that she had seen it. On YouTube, which she uses daily for an hour or two, whether on her iPad or on their phones.
He added that his daughter had no idea about the "Momo" game, or the dangers posed by it, and her mother did not notice any behavioral change from her before watching the game, but he decided after what happened to buy a smart TV, to run YouTube on it, Follow up on what the child is watching, in order to avoid exposing her to any potential dangers.
Hawamdeh called on families to monitor children's use of the Internet, given that the "YouTube" application is an open environment, in which all ideas are presented, pointing out that his daughter had previously watched a channel specialized only in displaying bad habits, so his daughter's behavior was identical to what she was watching. .
Finally, media reports spoke of the suicide of a 12-year-old Argentine girl, and before that a girl from the Philippines, to use the game, which relies on an image of a creepy woman, with a frightening view with bulging eyes, an unnatural smile, and greasy black hair, which is part of a statue he made. Japanese artist Midori Hayashi, with the slight difference that in the real sculpture the head is in the shape of a bird-like creature.The Department of Education and Knowledge in Abu Dhabi stated that it sends "compliance" teams to visit nurseries on a regular basis, and each nursery receives a detailed report on the visit.
The Director of the General Department of Criminal Investigations and Investigations in Dubai Police, Brigadier General Jamal Salem Al-Jallaf, recently revealed that his department had received 374 reports of extortion electronically over the past three years, including 115 reports whose victims were children.
For its part, the Ministry of the Interior warned against the spread of electronic games on the Internet that promote violence and suicide among children and young people, and cause severe damage to their users - especially children - to the point of suicide, through virtual instructions that affect them.
The Ministry, through the Child Protection Center, warned of the importance of family control over children’s practice of electronic games via the Internet, and to educate them not to play dangerous games, including the Blue Whale game, which recently caused the suicide of a number of adolescents in some countries of the world. Including Arab countries.
The Child Protection Center in the Ministry confirmed the follow-up of the spread of dangerous electronic games, in the cyberspace, with great interest during the recent period, and its impact on the behavior of young people and children, and in this context it carries out awareness campaigns in the councils and media platforms, to limit the practice of such games.
He pointed out the Ministry of Interior's keenness to encourage children to play safe and purposeful electronic games, and to choose what suits their age.
4 steps to protect children
The expert and academic researcher in social media programs and cybercrime, Dr. Obaid Saleh Al-Mukhtin, identified four practical steps that the guardian of the child or adolescent should follow, to protect him from slipping into dangerous games, which are: Limiting the time available for the child or adolescent to use the Internet, games, and the smartphone And the father or mother encourages their young children to discover electronic means from a smartphone and a tablet computer, and not to let them discover the world through smart phones themselves, which causes them to slip into platforms that ultimately take their lives, and families with their young children in the games they want to play, so that it is The members of the game are those around them and known to them, and this prevents them from communicating with strangers, in addition to downloading certain programs on the phone of the child or adolescent, and on the phone of his guardian, that detects and blocks dangerous games, including the “mmguardian” program, and it can be downloaded on the “iPhone” or “ Android».
Easy persuasion mechanisms mixed with intimidation
Press reports indicated that the "Momo game" targets the age group from six to 18 years old, using easy persuasion mechanisms, mixed with intimidation, especially through video clips or text messages, by exciting children and adolescents to interact with a group of dangerous experiences to complete, as well as Players receive threats of physical violence against themselves or their families, if they do not complete the specified instructions.
Many children and adolescents helped spread their phone numbers through social networking sites, especially in Mexico, Colombia and Japan, which made the pirates in charge of them collect a lot of information about the person, then blackmail him with it, if he did not fulfill what was required of him, similar to the game «Blue Whale». ”, which appeared in 2017, and its Russian developer, Philip Bodkin, was eventually arrested on charges of inciting the suicide of more than 16 people.
These dangerous games are linked to crimes of electronic extortion, to which players are exposed, especially children and adolescents, who are under severe psychological pressure. And security agencies in the world, such as the British police, have warned that this game may target intruders behind it to collect sensitive personal information, such as passwords, and then use this information to commit other crimes, such as hacking bank accounts, or the like.
• The Ministry of Interior follows up on the spread of dangerous electronic games, and calls on families to monitor their children.
• Specialists warn of "Momo", because it encourages children to commit suicide and threatens them with death.
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