Recently, news agencies, such as CNN and Fox News, have made reports regarding a viral phenomenon known as the Momo Challenge. The Momo Challenge is said to be an online dare where a viewer must watch a Youtube video showing the image of a bird-like woman known as “Momo” set to a voice encouraging the viewer to harm themselves or others. Despite the media attention surrounding the “Momo Challenge,” the challenge is a hoax news outlets used as a scary story to attract an audience.

            The “Momo Challenge” did not begin as a YouTube video. A basic YouTube search shows a number of news agencies commenting on the Momo Challenge without an original video. Youtube has also announced it has no evidence of a Momo Challenge video being uploaded to its platform.

The legend of Momo is believed to have begun as a Facebook post containing a picture of Momo and a phone number associated with Whatsapp. If the Momo number was contacted on Whatsapp, Momo was said to respond with profanities in Spanish or lewd images. Although there is more credibility to Momo’s Facebook origin, no one has yet to confirm the origin of the Momo Challenge.

Momo has some traction on the Spanish side of YouTube, but the Momo challenge is a nonentity to the rest of the internet. With the credibility of the Momo Challenge in question, and news agencies already retracting their stories on the Momo Challenge,  people must ask themselves, “why did the Momo Challenge get media attention in the first place?”

            News agencies who claimed the Momo Challenge was real were being lazy journalists. In addition to there being no Momo Challenge video, the creepy image associated with the Momo Challenge is a cropped image of a sculpture made by Japanese artist Keisuke Aiso. Aiso’s sculpture depicted a creature from Japanese folklore known as the ubume, or the Bird Woman. The image of Asio’s sculpture made its rounds on a number of horror-based social media accounts months before the creation of the Momo hoax.

            Although the Momo Challenge is a hoax, the coverage of the legend could lead people to act out in a destructive way. In May of 2014, two 12-year-old Wisconsin girls lured a younger girl into the woods to sacrifice her to a genuine online myth known as Slender Man. Thankfully, the two girls failed to kill their friend and the would-be stabbing victim was able to check out of the hospital six weeks after her attempted murder. The two 12-year-old girls who tried to commit the murder were both sentenced to many years in a psychiatric hospital in 2017.

Cases like the Slender Man stabbing are rare, but they highlight how online trends can affect people. Momo is a fake online legend, but the extra coverage given to Momo by the press increases the possibility of the character influencing someone. The Momo hoax’s dark message encourages self-harm and murder. Ghost stories and urban legends, including legends that started online, have cultural value and require genuine creativity to create. While most scary stories are harmless fun, the Momo hoax only exists to scare parents and encourage destructive behavior. News outlets should be ashamed of pushing out a non-newsworthy story with a destructive message.

Photo from The Sun via YouTube