Warning: This story contains a disturbing image below.
The Momo Challenge has dominated social media this week, with story after story being shared about the creepy face and its supposed instructions.
But how much is really known about the so-called challenge, and how much has been invented as the story has spread through the internet?
Are children really being contacted by a stranger telling them to harm themselves? Are any actually doing it? And where did that image of 鈥淢omo鈥� come from?
Read on to find out what we know 鈥� and what we don鈥檛 鈥� about the latest social media sensation.
What is the Momo Challenge?
Descriptions of the Momo Challenge don鈥檛 always match up with each other, but there are some common themes. Reports generally involve messages being spliced into otherwise innocuous videos or delivered by human-controlled characters in online games.
These messages typically urge children to contact somebody known as Momo via a social media service such as WhatsApp or Snapchat.
Once contacted, Momo is said to direct people to commit criminal acts or harm themselves 鈥� sometimes even providing instructions for suicide 鈥� and threaten harm to a user or their family if the directions are not followed.
Didn鈥檛 I read that a child died?
Although there have been media reports claiming children killed or seriously injured themselves at Momo鈥檚 behest, none of these claims have ever been confirmed by authorities.
The first media coverage about the Momo Challenge may have come from Argentina last July, when the reported that it was being investigated as a possible contributing factor to the suicide death of a 12-year-old girl. Police never confirmed whether that theory was borne out by their investigation.
Similar reports out of and have described the Momo Challenge as a 鈥渟uicide game鈥� without official confirmation of a link between the reported deaths and Momo-like social media communications.
Momo returned to the news this week following a report in Scotland鈥檚 newspaper about Lyn Dixon, who said her eight-year-old son told her he had seen the Momo image accompanied by a demand to hurt himself.
What鈥檚 with that picture?
With bulging eyes, wild hair and a wicked smile, the image most often associated with Momo is a striking one 鈥� and that鈥檚 even before you notice that the creature鈥檚 below-the-neck anatomy barely resembles that of a human.
Internet sleuths to a photo of a sculpture by a Japanese special-effects company, which was taken at a gallery in Tokyo. The photo was posted to Instagram in 2016 by an account that has since been deleted.
The photo appears to have first been connected to Momo last summer, shortly after it was posted to a Reddit鈥檚 鈥渃reepy鈥� page and about two weeks before the death of the girl in Argentina.
So is it real, or is it a hoax?
It鈥檚 hard to say.
While police agencies in Canada and the United Kingdom have issued warnings about the challenge, they were all based on secondhand information 鈥� not on any specific reports they had received.
In fact, there have not been any official reports of individual incidents related to the Momo Challenge.
As explained above, any claims of children being injured or killed while following Momo鈥檚 instructions have not been substantiated by authorities.
David Mikkelson, the founder of fact-checking website Snopes, has stopped short of using the word hoax but that that documented proof of Momo鈥檚 existence is 鈥渟ketchy鈥� and unverified.
More concerning to Mikkelson than the initial incidents that prompted media coverage of Momo is the coverage itself amplifying the Momo phenomenon.
鈥淎nything that puts suggestions and images of self-harm and suicide in front of children who are already vulnerable to self-esteem and other psychological issues (including suicidal tendencies) can carry dangerous potential,鈥� he wrote.
If there has been no confirmation Momo is real, does that mean there鈥檚 nothing to worry about?
Not necessarily. Just because something hasn鈥檛 been officially verified doesn鈥檛 mean it hasn鈥檛 happened.
It鈥檚 possible that children have been urged to hurt themselves or others by someone identifying themselves as Momo. It鈥檚 also possible that the entire craze has been an overblown reaction to one relatively harmless encounter, or that it was entirely fabricated from the beginning.
Making it particularly difficult to tell how much of the story is real is that many of the supposed Momo encounters begin with messages delivered in online games, where users are usually not recording their activities.
Additionally, most direct communication with Momo is said to happen via platforms such as WhatsApp and Snapchat, where conversations are likewise typically private by default.
This makes it hard for users to capture proof of any meetings with Momo 鈥� and hard for fact-checkers to definitively prove that such meetings are not happening.
How can I keep my kids safe?
Some of the police responses to the Momo Challenge have included advice on how to protect children, stressing that the methods that work for avoiding Momo are also good online safety tips in general.
This advice typically includes watching what children are accessing online, stressing that they should report anything that makes them scared or uncomfortable to a trusted adult, and reminding them never to give out personal information to a stranger.
The RCMP maintains of resources around child internet safety, including links to interactive learning tools geared toward children.
