BEWARE OF SICK ‘MOMO CHALLENGE’ SUICIDE ‘GAME’

The vile viral game tells youngsters to self harm and even attempt suicide

Young children and teens are particularly vulnerable to a new viral challenge that is sweeping across social media, child welfare professionals in Oman have warned.

The “Momo Challenge” is a new online game that sees a person named Momo provide people with a list of tasks that seem fairly normal at first, but then escalate quickly so that some may even attempt to commit suicide. Failure to comply with Momo’s orders will lead to the user’s account being hacked, his/her personal details being shared all over the internet, and psychological harassment through a series of disturbing images being sent to the user’s WhatsApp account.

Spreading

The game has been spreading like wildfire across WhatsApp, where users are contacted by Momo, which features an avatar of a face of a hideous looking doll, which has the distorted features of a young girl, characterised with bulging eyes and a creepy looking beak-like mouth, and the body of a bird.

The game has already resulted in the death of a 12-year-old girl in Buenos Aires, and before it can cause damage in Oman, the country’s Information and Technology Authority has issued a warning asking people to stay away from the game, and refuse requests to establish contact with unknown numbers.

“Some games may carry malicious programmes for the purpose of spying on the owners of devices or for the purpose of extortion or theft of personal or bank information. It some cases, it may lead to physical abuse through the challenges and orders, and ultimately, to the risk of death or suicide, and there lies the seriousness of these challenges or malicious games,” said Haitham bin Hilal Al Hajri, senior training and awareness specialist at the Oman ITA. “We must note and take caution against the infiltration of these games to society.”

“This Momo Challenge of death is not a game that can be downloaded, but it is a challenge in the form of a game that is played over social networks, instant chat platforms or social gaming conversations,” he added.