Parents are reporting that they’ve seen videos of Momo from the Momo Challenge appearing in children’s videos on YouTube, including Fortnite, Minecraft, and Peppa Pig. Now, parents are reporting that some of these videos show Momo holding a knife too. But is there any proof of this? These are the videos we’ve found so far.
A couple of different Momo knife videos have been shared on social media recently. But like every other Momo video that has surfaced so far, the videos don’t provide proof that they’re being shared during children’s YouTube videos. So it’s not known if these videos were doctored and never actually appeared during a children’s video or if they really did appear and were recorded too late to qualify as proof.
This Momo knife video was shared by Belfast: In My Opinion podcast’s page on Facebook. This particular one appears to be partially a joke, because they act overly scared about the whole thing.
In the video, Momo is telling the person to put the knife to their neck, which is what some parents are reporting their kids did see.
Another version was circulating on YouTube in July 2018, right around the time Momo first began surfacing. However, this one hasn’t resurfaced this time around. In fact, it looks a lot like a spoof video created to get in on the Momo trend.
Something creepy does seem to be happening though, or it’s an unproven concern that’s gone viral. The mother of an eight-year-old has shared that her son was urged by a Momo video to stab himself in the neck with a kitchen knife, Daily Mail shared. The mom, who’s from Edinburgh, said her son saw Momo on YouTube videos and became scared of the dark and worried about being alone. He pointed to an image of Momo on her phone and said the creature had told him to put a knife in his neck.
One of the earlier videos came from Xsarah Gibson on Facebook, who said her son John was watching Peppa Pig on Kids YouTube when a video showed up in the middle of the Peppa video showing Momo threatening the viewer. You can hear a voice saying in a singsong manner “Momo’s gonna kill you.” That video was later deleted from Gibson’s Facebook page without explanation or made private. You can watch a YouTube version of that original post below.
Xsarah Gibson said at the time that her son John actually saw the video while watching Peppa Pig. Here’s a screenshot of the post. The video that was in the screenshot can still be viewed in the YouTube post above.
It appears that more than one version of this video is circulating, judging by this Facebook post from MKim Kim.
Another person shared a video on Facebook showing someone talking to the Momo Challenge and how the account responded. It’s not clear if this is similar to what happens every time when Momo is contacted. The number for the Momo Challenge sometimes changes. The original Momo Challenge was on WhatsApp and encourage people to contact changing WhatsApp numbers. People who contacted the number received disturbing images and, according to some accounts from around the world, were ultimately encouraged to kill themselves. You can read more details about what happened in the WhatsApp version in Heavy’s story here.
UPDATE: An alert reader informed Heavy that this video does not show Momo actually texting people, but is taken from a little-known game called Momo.Exe.
Here is a screenshot from the game:
Momo.Exe
Numerous people have posted online saying that their children have personally seen the videos (mostly within the England area.) However, none of these reports include actual proof that it happened during a children’s YouTube video.
Some of the reports don’t indicate an actual Momo video, but do say that Momo shows up “in the corner” of the video. For example, on Reddit, one user wrote the following, saying that her niece was watching Minecraft on her mom’s cellphone and a Momo picture was in the corner of the screen. “It was just there edited onto the video. I took the cellphone from her and gave it back to my mom.” So this commenter is saying she saw it personally.
Another person wrote that her daughter showed her a Momo picture on a video that she was watching too. The picture was also in the corner. “Video had no challenge or demand outside of the game,” they wrote.
This next one is second-hand information from a commenter saying that their neighbor’s friend’s son saw Momo talking to him in the middle of a Peppa Pig video. Since the original source is so far removed, it’s unclear if this is accurate.
Despite all the reports, there’s still no proof. There is one video circulating that shows a Momo photo edited into a Kinder eggs video. But this video is so open about the whole thing that they even label the video “Momo Kinder Joy Surprise Egg vs. Chupa Chupa Trolls Surprise Ball Toy.”
The YouTube account is called “Video for Kids.” Earlier today, the same channel uploaded a new video called “Momo Kinder Joy Eggs Surprise unboxing!”
These videos, however, don’t show any of the Momo content that parents have been warning about.
A video did start appearing today that’s circulating and it does show Momo appearing during Peppa Pig. However, without an upload date, it’s impossible to know if this was created later to take advantage of the hype. It’s very different from the videos that were originally circulating.
(Learn more about the newer video in Heavy’s updated story here.)
It’s not completely unheard of for disturbing content to make its way into kids’ YouTube videos. Just a few days ago, YouTube Kids removed children’s videos that had been spliced to show disturbing content with suicide instructions in the middle, ABC News reported. Pediatrician Dr. Free Hess found the content. It showed a cartoon character who would appeal to children, but four minutes into the video a frame with a man demonstrating how to commit suicide was spliced in.
There are also quite a few “parody” videos that get mistaken for children’s videos because they’re so similar, and they end up being very disturbing. Here’s a disturbing example from Peppa Pig. It is not a Momo video, but it shows a very disturbing Peppa parody video where Peppa eats a relative and carves bacon from her arm. WARNING: Some may find the video disturbing. Some have noted that the thumbnails may appear normal, misleading people about the videos’ content.
Some have theorized that certain channels might upload innocent YouTube videos so they’re deemed safe, and then rip a legitimate children’s video and re-upload it with disturbing content edited in. It’s not known if this happened with Momo, however, since it’s not yet proven that the spliced videos actually appeared.
The Momo image itself is actually from a Japanese special effects company. You can learn more here.
This is a developing story.