Less than a month ago we told you the public complaint made by a mother, after discovering a clip inserted in a children's video of YouTube Kids, with instructions to the children on how to proceed to succeed.
Well, now it is the National Police who has alerted parents about the importance of supervising the videos that our children see, because it seems that the sinister image of Momo (of which we also talked to you a long time ago) has returned. On this occasion, Momo does not star in a viral whatsapp, but it sneaks in the middle of the children's videos, scaring children and encouraging them to harm themselves.
With this message posted on their networks, the National Police reported on the resurgence of Momo, a whatsapp viral that we already alerted some time ago, but now returns with dangerous modifications.NO, MOMO DOES NOT EXIST, it is an old viral that resurfaces now with some harmful modifications.
The cyber-agents of the National Police are analyzing in this sense different videos, some of them of a childish nature and to which a supposed message of Momo has been added that could become dangerous, especially for the little ones.
Thus It is everyone's responsibility to prevent these images from becoming viral: It is important that parents SUPERVISE THE VIDEOS accessed by their children, especially the younger ones, to avoid being exposed to toxic contents for them.
It is also essential NOT TO SHARE any video or photograph in which this viral is referenced, so that it is not ourselves who help us spread it further.
Instead of sharing it with anyone, what we should do if we find any such video or photo is to REPORT IT TO THE OWN PLATFORM OR SOCIAL NETWORK in which it is hosted, so that it is eliminated
In Babies and more 'Momo', the whatsapp chain that causes terror among children and adolescentsApparently, the sinister figure has sneaked into different YouTube videos (some of them of a childish nature), scaring children and throwing dangerous messages that incite self-harm or harm third parties.
A few days ago, a user on Twitter shared the catchy baby video of Baby Shark with the terrifying image of Momo as part of a clip inserted in the middle of the song. In the video, Momo asks the children to look for a knife and cut their hands, and if they don't, it will come for them.
Also in the Facebook thread of the National Police page, several users have commented similar cases in which Momo sneaks in the middle of children's videos, such as Fornite demonstrations or Peppa Pig videos.
It is not the first time that the National Police alert on Momo. And it is that this viral, like so many others that unfortunately have become fashionable in recent months, can put the physical integrity of children and adolescents at risk.
But who is Momo really?
As the National Police warns, Momo does not exist. It is a japanese sculpture which was exhibited for the first time in the alternative art gallery, Vanilla Gallery, in 2016. However, and without its author's record, his image was taken from the context of the exhibition and began to be used as part of a viral challenge.
It is indisputable that the sculpture is creepy, sinister and even terrifying, especially if the one who sees it is a young child. But the terrible thing about all this is that there are people capable of taking an image out of context to scare the little ones in this way, manipulating videos of children's content.
The measures that YouTube is taking
It is not the first time that YouTube faces complaints from parents for show misleading child content in your videos. And although for a while now, the social network is reinforcing its security policies to clean inappropriate content, it is clear that there is still work to be done.
On Magnet Advertisers are leaving YouTube. The reason? A network of pedophile content on the platform Recently, YouTube took a new step by announcing the prohibition of dangerous challenges where children were involved. And in this regard, he has expressed his zero tolerance to any video that includes the figure of Momo, regardless of the treatment performed.
So television channels such as CBS, ABC, CNN or Fox have seen how their informative videos related to Momo have been demonetized, and include a legend at the beginning alerting the user about disturbing content. As we can read in The Verge, it is not a specific policy now launched by YouTube on the occasion of the resurgence of Momo, but the guidelines of advertiser friendly content.
What to do if we find a video with these characteristics?
Although Youtube is responsible for cleaning all kinds of inappropriate content, Police ask parents to monitor the videos their children watch, in order to prevent them from falling into such unpleasant and dangerous exposures.
But if still, we have the bad luck to run into a video of these characteristics, the Police recommend two things:
First, report to the social network itself where the video is hosted to be removed as soon as possible. If we have found it on YouTube, we can access information on how to proceed on its Policies and Security page.
And in second place do not share or spread it with anyone, with the aim of not contributing to its spread.
Apart from these measures, YouTube also recommends following a series of guidelines for older children to navigate safely, without forgetting that the final responsibility is always of the parents.
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