Momo Challenge
Moral panic causes individuals to have fear because of an evil that threatens their wellbeing in society. Besides, moral panic is always caused by a group of people and they target a particular set of individuals, mostly the youths. Moral panic entails the people causing moral panic, moral entrepreneurs, and the mass media (Cengage, 2015). There are various examples of events that led to a moral panic in history, for instance, the momo challenge.
The momo challenges were prank that spread worldwide through the internet, Youtube, Facebook, and other social media. Momo was a suicidal game that mostly targeted children and adolescents in the United States. Moreover, the hoax that began in July 2018 frightened parents in America since they believed Momo would appear to their children online and trick them into harming themselves (Risak, 2020). Some children committed suicide due to the game, thus parents had to be careful about what their children viewed on Youtube and other media sources.
Besides, people who called themselves the momo sent Whatsapp messages to certain individuals urging them to commit suicide. The people who refused received threats from momo and frightening pictures. Also, some parents restricted their children from going online since the momo challenge issue became serious with time and the deaths as a result of the hoax grew. Concerning the momo challenge, some widespread panics led to a large number of individuals migrating from America before their children harmed themselves due to the challenge.
However, moving from the United States did no good since the momo affected the whole globe and it was active on the internet. During late 2018, those in authority managed to stop the momo from sending harmful messages to kids and youths. However, after the situation, many video games, movies, and films about the momo challenge were still trending, hence children were still not safe. The police warned parents on the issue, advising them to monitor their children’s activities on the internet.
Most parents blamed the media for their children’s death and danger other than the momo people. However, Youtube responded by saying they had no evidence of videos promoting the momo challenge and were not to be blamed (Markiewitz, 2019). The only way to ensure the safety of youths and kids was to ensure they never engaged in the momo challenge issues on the media. Besides, even after the end of the hoax, children were greatly affected by the whole game.
Many children were negatively impacted by the whole game and some ended up still searching for the momos online. Also, some people used the event to create games and films and slightly editing them to avoid harm to children and adolescents. Some adults and children admired the momos and came up with new ideas, thus the momo challenge came up again in 2019. However, various ways to stop them had been put in place by the cybercrime officials in America and other affected states.
From the above discussion, moral panic can lead to loss of lives for some people in society, thus immediate action should be taken on people messing with morality. Besides, parents have the responsibility of monitoring their children’s internet activities thus ensuring safety from any harm. The police and all citizens of any nation have the responsibility of ensuring the safety of each other through reporting any suspicious acts. Finally, the momo challenge came to an end and the video games and films were edited to avoid harmful scenes.
References
Cengage. Mindtap. (2015). Dispersed Forms of Collective Behaviour
Markiewitz, A., & Kobilke, L. (2019). The Momo Challenge.
Risak, S. (2020). The Ubume Challenge: A Digital Environmental Humanities Project.