Momo Challenge a wake-up call for parents

When I was in my second year of university, I made the mistake of watching The Ring. I’d watched plenty of horror movies before and wasn’t bothered — well, except for that one traumatizing viewing of Candyman when I was eight.

I can’t say what it was about The Ring. Maybe Samara’s twisted, pale face and dark, wet hair kind of reminded me of myself when I get out of the shower, but that movie scared the crap out of me for years.

So, I guess it’s no surprise that when a certain pale, dark-haired, scary-faced girl started popping up in our social media feeds — the dreaded Momo — I was spooked every time. I’d literally shudder and hide the post.

If you managed not to hear about the Momo Challenge, it was supposedly a series of videos encouraging kids to hurt themselves and the videos were said to be slipped into popular YouTube videos kids were already watching, like Peppa Pig and Minecraft.

Rumours of the Momo Challenge started circulating last summer, but reached hysterical levels last month after a post was shared by a police department. Pretty soon, it was all any parent was talking about …

Continue reading in my weekly parenting column, The Mom Scene …