The Momo panic: keep calm and carry on

THERE’S nothing like a moral panic to green-light the willing suspension of our critical thinking. Take Momo, the image of the bird-woman linked to reports of children being encouraged online to harm themselves or others.

My eight-year-old knows a girl who knows a girl who baked her friend in an oven because Momo told her to. Others were traumatised for life by a Momo chat given by a concerned teacher, while making the ‘Momo face’ is now a freakish playground game.

Not that any of the kids I know have actually seen Momo. But still. Be afraid.

It puts me in mind of how worried eight-year-old me was about being cursed by a chain letter my mother had unceremoniously binned.

And BADD – the 1980s action group Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons, which mobilised against the popular game leading children into devil worship. Well, I’m married to a DD player of that era and I can attest that he’s not a devil worshipper; he’s a very nice man.

And so I suspect it is with Momo. Dig into reports on the reach of the ugly internet meme, and evidence of direct harm caused by the ‘challenge’ to which the image is linked is yet to be found. Cases linked of children killing themselves in other countries are not stating the game was the direct cause.

Customisable video games are said to be featuring Momo-type characters created and shared by players.

The images pop up on YouTube, perpetuating the belief that Momo can sneak into your child’s head unbeknownst to you, during any one of the endless hours you have outsourced your baby-sitting duties to the amoral internet. Ahem.

Somewhere, a niggling voice is saying Momo is nowt more than a viral ghost story, a chain letter or killer clown.

The good, positive advice for children coming out of our collective Momo experience might be on how to separate fact from fiction; advice we could take to heart ourselves.