Parents say online video promotes self-harm
There’s a video going around that is causing parents to cringe. It’s a video that shows how to harm yourself and others.
It’s a character called the MoMo Children on the YouTube Children’s channel. It originated in Japan by an unknown artist.
One local child was impacted by the online video.
“Last week I heard that one of my grandchildren has been subjected to this trend,” said Magdalene Mercado from Idaho Falls.
Magdalene’s granddaughter was watching “Peppa the Pig” when she came across the video.
“It just starts out with innocent cartoons, popular cartoons that the kids watch every day and all of a sudden a subliminal message pops up or somebody walks across the screen and shows a suicidal act that the children should do and either says do it and the cartoon continues. It was very disturbing,” said Magdaline.
Counselors say most adults are cognitively aware of what social trends to ignore, but his does not stand true for children.
“One of the concerns I see with a lot of kids that I worked with is that they do get sucked into these trends because it’s a way for them to see how they can gain attention from other kids that they interact with at their school,” said Travis Bybee, a therapist at Teton Counseling Center.
There is something parents can do.
“I think that’s the key as parents is to be involved. Unfortunately, access to these technologies and their phones and everything is that kids are utilizing these opportunities when they are not away from us. So as parents often times we don’t see the things that go on with our kids and so spending time talking with them, looking through their phones, their devices to see what things they are being exposed to I think is, priority. Silence equals acceptance and if we are not taking the time to talk with our kids about these things then in their minds it’s being accepted and the trend continues,” said Bybee.
If you believe that your child has been subjected to harmful online content have a discussion with them and make sure they know it’s not right and not to follow the trend.
