Parents: You Should Know What The Momo Challenge Is

Stop doing dumb internet challenges. Just stop it. And while we're giving you life advice, please keep an eye on the kids and what they are watching online. When we just hand over the tablet or our phones to keep them busy or quiet, do we really know what they are looking at?

Enter "The Momo Challenge". Some folks are claiming this "suicide game" is showing up in kids videos and the things it's asking our kids to do are extremely dangerous.

This whole thing has a "The Ring" horror movie vibe to it. The Momo Challenge comes in two forms. It's a disturbing image placed and spliced into kids videos on YouTube or a game you can play on What's App. Either way, somehow or another this Japanese character/image/statue (which is pretty creepy looking) tells you to do stuff, calls you, face times you, and eventually escalates to you being told to hurt yourself and get video/photo proof.

Momo allegedly targets young children by encouraging them to text a number on WhatsApp, which then sends them instructions to complete a series of increasingly bizarre and dangerous tasks from watching a horror movie to  engaging in self-harm to taking their own lives.(Rolling Stone)

(Credit: Denver7 – The Denver Channel via YouTube)

Now mind you, this thing has been around for a bit. It's recently come around again as most internet lore does. And there's been enough traction on it this time that it's gained the attention of the law. Specifically, The Police Service of Northern Ireland who posted this warning on Facebook.