Beware of what your child watches online

A resident said she is extremely worried about the exposure given to the suicide game known as the Momo Challenge. “My children watch YouTube videos during weekends. I called my daughter first and asked her if she had ever heard of the Momo Challenge.

She said no, but then I showed her the face and asked her if she had ever seen it. At first, she shook her head and then her eyes welled up with tears and she looked distressed. I can read my children very well. I know when something is wrong. When I asked her again if she had ever seen the face, she said she had seen it, but she had never played the video because the face looked scary. I then called my son and asked him the same questions and he assured me that he had never seen it before,” Tracy* said.

The Momo Challenge consists of a series of dangerous tasks, including violent attacks and suicide.

According to Tracy, her children have access to YouTube and this can have a negative impact on them. Because children do not know and understand that those videos are not realistic, they can fall into the trap and follow the instructions.

“Parents, monitor what your children are watching on YouTube and Kids YouTube. If they are going to watch shows, watch with them. Supervision is so important.

“There are some things that are just not for children, but are disguised as children’s shows with child characters. The most used character is Peppa Pig, who is weird enough, but these channels have taken the likeness of the characters and twisted them with scary weird themes. Be aware of what your children are watching. These fake videos using child characters show up on both Kids YouTube and regular YouTube, due to the characters, and the content is unmonitored. Parents should also be aware of things like suicide games,” she said.

She added, “I monitor my children’s phone time. My husband has an app called Bitdefender Central on his phone where he can see what the children are doing and downloading, and despite that, we still missed the Momo Challenge. It is difficult to prevent because people always find a way to put these things online. There is pure evil out there. Please keep your children safe.”

Nangi Mbasa, a guidance counsellor at Akeso Behavioural Health Care Group said, “Parents should create a platform for their children to speak more freely with them, because they sometimes encounter depression and stress and do not really talk about it. There is no one who just wakes up and decides to commit suicide – by the time you reach that point, too much has already happened.”

*Name changed to protect her children.