Schools remind parents of online dangers in face of latest 'challenge'

Area school districts are combatting the latest viral online scare by educating students and parents of the “Momo Challenge” and it’s unfounded existence.

The Neelyville R-IV, Twin Rivers R-X and Poplar Bluff R-1 School Districts all sent information to parents explaining the hoax as well as general online safety.

The viral scare has also sparked discussions and reassurance from school staff directly to students.

“We just need to be sure kids understand it’s all non-reality,” Hillview Elementary Assistant Principal Debra Parish said. “It’s make believe, not factual and there is no way they or their family could get hurt.”

The Momo Challenge is linked to social media sites, such as YouTube and WhatsApp, where images of a frightening woman with oversized eyes, dark hair and pale skin supposedly pops up with creepy messages and commands are said to escalate to self-harm or even suicide.

UK-based digital safety organization Parent Zone has reported there is little evidence of any deaths directly tied to Momo.

The Momo image is actually a cropped photo of a sculpture displayed at a Tokyo gallery that specializes in horror art in 2016.

According to Neelyville Technology Coordinator Bruce McGrew, the Momo Challenge first surfaced about 18 months ago and “died out.”

Now, with the new found exposure McGrew said people are imbedding other questionable content into online searches.

Others claim Momo can be found spliced into children’s programs like Peppa Pig or video games like Fortnight in videos posted to YouTube.

While the Momo image is seen just about everywhere online with national media outlets reporting on it, McGrew said he has not been able to find where it appears while watching children’s shows on the app.

YouTube has publicly commented on the situation, tweeting that after much review no one at the company has seen “recent evidence of videos promoting the Momo Challenge on YouTube,” and reiterating that “videos encouraging harmful and dangerous challenges are against our policies.”

Even though the Momo Challenge has been found to be an urban legend, stories are being circulated and students are still curious and asking questions of their parents and teachers.

“There is a fine line that parents and educators have to walk as they try to educate the kids about it yet not scare them,” Parish said.

While overhearing a therapist on the news discussing how to speak with children about Momo, Parish said the advice included letting them do the talking about what they already know and “go from there.”

“This is not giving the children any ideas that they don’t already have,” Parish said.

The modern monster of online culture was immediately addressed with parents and students at Hillview through literature sent home when students began sharing photos.

Elementary Principal Aaron Burton visited with all third through sixth grade students while Supervisor of Special Services Dr. Sabrina Morehead and Elementary Counselor Holly Dobbins have shared tips for parents on the school’s Facebook page.

“For everyday Internet safety we have blocks on technology to keep as much of that kind of thing out as possible,” Parish added.

She and other school leaders are also taking this opportunity to educate students about online safety in general.

“The first line of defense is for parents to monitor their children as they are online,” she said. “Especially the younger ones.”

By doing this, parents should be in the room and listening while their children are online as well as checking frequently on what is being viewed.

“Limit the amount of time they are on the Internet and expose them to more family activities, exercise, good old-fashion board games and talking,” Parish said.

The Twin Rivers School District followed suit and sent a notice to parents informing of the Momo hoax.

Also hearing about Momo last year, Fisk Elementary Counselor Lorie Veazey believed “it was less of a deal this time,” but the national attention has sparked curiosity.

“Momo has not been a huge deal for me at Fisk this time around,” she said.

One middle school student approached Veazey about Momo, but not for herself.

According to Veazey, the student was concerned about her high school sister who had looked into Momo.

Veazey touched base with the high school counselor to check in with the student and encouraged the younger sibling to inform her mother.

“I talked with the middle school student about not giving these sort of things power,” she said. “It’s not real, they can’t control you by watching these videos. You are always still in control of yourself.”

The student assured Veazey she would not watch anything like Momo.

“I think she seemed pretty savvy about it as far as realizing it was a bad idea, but was concerned if her sister knew it was a bad idea,” she said.

Online trends like Momo are a whole new set of worries for parents of this generation, Veazey added.

“Being a small, family-orientated community it’s easy to forget there is that element out there a lot of time,” she said. “The internet opens up the world to our kids to a lot of things we may not want, but it’s all out there at our fingertips. Monitor what your kids are doing, stay on top of it all the time and be aware.”

According to Poplar Bluff R-1 Superintendent Dr. Scott Dill, his district also sent information home addressing terms of the current viral trend as well as Internet safety and diligence necessary in the modern world to all parents of students in pre-K through 12.

“A lot of content students would try to access is already blocked by our content filter,” he said. “Our IT personnel do an amazing job, but we did see a spike in search activity very specifically looking for this challenge, so we do know that the kids are aware and talking about it.”

When investigating the challenge itself, Dill said the district also found it to be an urban legend.

When putting on a Peppa Pig video for your child, there is trust that is all they will see. Dill added there are some disturbed individuals who have spliced in other inappropriate and disturbing footage.

“It is frightening, especially for our little ones and we just want them to know we are here to help them if they have those concerns,” Dill said. “They can express those to us and we are doing our best to ensure the content viewed on school devices are school appropriate every single day.”

This is why the district chose to take a broader approach on the issue, he said.

“This did provide an opportunity with the number of people discussing this to reinforce safe browsing habits and safe media usage habits,” Dill said.

This comes down to parents, teachers and every adult in a child’s life being constantly vigilant about the content they are viewing as well as being actively engaging about what they are seeing.

“We can’t be careful enough,” Dill said. “There are people in this world that would do our kids harm and we as the adults in their lives have to protect them from that.”

R-1 was also aware of Momo last year, Dill said, but the attention was nowhere near what is being brought to light at this time.

He believes the added attention from celebrities is what fueled the Momo Challenge talk.

When hype of the Momo stories fade away, Dill said he believes online hoaxes will reappear at some point in the future due to how quickly information is communicated on social media platforms.

“The best thing we can do is educate ourselves, educate our kids and be vigilant about the media our children are consuming,” he said.