News about the Momo Challenge is constantly changing. Parents have been sharing Momo videos and warnings for days now, after a school in England sent out a warning about reports that Momo was appearing in Peppa Pig, Minecraft, Fortnite, and other children’s videos on YouTube. But all the videos released didn’t actually show Momo popping up during an actual episode, until a new video surfaced that was likely created just to take advantage of the hype. Meanwhile, YouTube announced that it had found no evidence of The Momo Challenge and the whole thing was just a hoax. So who’s right? Is Momo a hoax? Read on to see what we know so far.
YouTube Said It Has Found No Evidence of the Momo Challenge’s Creepy Video
First, YouTube has officially announced that it’s found no evidence of the Momo Challenge appearing in children’s videos.
We want to clear something up regarding the Momo Challenge: We’ve seen no recent evidence of videos promoting the Momo Challenge on YouTube. Videos encouraging harmful and dangerous challenges are against our policies.
YouTube wrote on February 27: “We want to clear something up regarding the Momo Challenge: We’ve seen no recent evidence of videos promoting the Momo Challenge on YouTube. Videos encouraging harmful and dangerous challenges are against our policies.”
They are still asking anyone who’s seen harmful or dangerous challenges on YouTube to report it.
If you see videos including harmful or dangerous challenges on YouTube, we encourage you to flag them to us immediately. These challenges are clearly against our Community Guidelines. More info here: t.co/H0C5tCfn5S
YouTube has even gone so far as to thank others for debunking it.
Thanks, @PhillyD, for debunking the Momo Challenge and encouraging parents to flag inappropriate content to us.
So YouTube is insistent and confident that the Momo Challenge is not appearing in the middle of innocent children’s videos.
Parents Are Still Insisting They’ve Personally Seen Momo
Parents and others are insisting that they have personally seen the Momo video pop up during a YouTube children’s video that their child was watching, or at the very least they’ve seen a Momo figure in the corner of the video while it played. Here are some of their stories. These reports, however, don’t include an actual video of Momo appearing during a children’s video to authenticate them.
On Reddit one person said 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.” She’s saying she saw it personally.
She said she’d go through her mom’s YouTube history to try to find the video, but wasn’t able to find the evidence, unfortunately. Her full post reads:
My niece is 6 years old, she was watching some Minecraft/Roblox video on my mother’s cellphone, and a Momo picture was on the corner of the screen for no reason at all, it was just there edited onto the video, I took the cellphone from her and gave it back to my mom. Those YouTube kids channels are fucked up, the people who creates those videos are fucked up, but WE have to monitor what our kids are watching, there’s no excuse.
Edit: For the people saying this is a “false flag”, I’m going through my mom’s YouTube history when I get back from work to find the video, it’s not an easy task since both her and my niece use the same account.
Edit 2: After one hour of scrolling through hundreds of Roblox, My little pony and toys unboxing videos, I’ve decided to stop searching for the video I mentioned, however, a simple “Momo Roblox” YouTube search will give you nightmares.
Another person said her daughter showed her a Momo picture on a video that she was watching, and the picture was in the corner. “Video had no challenge or demand outside of the game,” they wrote.
Her full post reads: “I warned my daughter about this. She showed me a few days later her pic on a video … in the corner. Video had no challenge or demand outside of the game… But anything associated with that I want her to avoid.”
Some have even responded to YouTube’s post insisting they’ve seen it personally.
And others have come back to Reddit saying they didn’t see the Momo video before, but they’ve seen it now. However, one person thinks it was created later to take advantage of the hype. One person wrote: “Yesterday (2/27) was the first time in 3 days that I have been actually able to find a video with Momo in the middle of a Peppa pig video. It was obviously made because of the new hype around it since the channel was brand new. It’s a trolls paradise right now with all the outrage.”
A New Momo Video Appearing in Peppa Pig Showed Up Today, But It Provides No Proof of Hacking & Was Likely Created To Take Advantage of the Hype
Meanwhile, a new Momo video did show up in the last day that shows Momo appearing in the middle of a Peppa video. However, this is more than likely someone creating a new video to try to take advantage of the hype. It provides no evidence that Momo was actually hacked into a pre-existing video or appearing in official YouTube channels for Peppa Pig or other children’s videos.
More than likely, this video ripped a Peppa Pig video and then spliced Momo in the middle. It’s also significantly different from the original video that was circulating, which you can watch below.
Interestingly, Heavy found a person on Facebook who had claimed her son saw that very first circulating video. But she later removed her post or made it private and didn’t clarify why. Here’s a YouTube version of that video:
Here’s a screenshot of the original post:
It appears that more than one version of this video was circulating too, judging by this Facebook post from MKim Kim. Unfortunately, this one also didn’t actually show Momo appearing during the children’s video itself.
It should be noted that the original circulating video provided no evidence that it ever appeared during a Peppa Pig or other children’s YouTube video.
“Peppa Pig” is a British children’s animated series that follows the adventures of Peppa Pig, her brother George, their parents, and other animal friends like Candy Cat, Rebecca Rabbit, and Suzy Sheep. The first episode debuted in 2004 and it’s a popular children’s series. The series has also aired on The Cartoon Network and on Nick Jr. in the U.S.
A Video Supposedly Showing Momo Texting Is Actually from a Game
Some people (including earlier versions of Heavy’s articles) have misinterpreted the following video as showing Momo responding to texts. However, an alert reader let Heavy know that this is actually from a little-known game for adults called Momo.Exe.
Here’s a screenshot from Momo.Exe:
Momo.Exe
Media in Britain Are Now Saying Momo Videos Were a Hoax & Only Unofficial Videos with Momo Spliced In Were the Sources
Media in Britain, meanwhile, are reporting that the entire thing is a hoax, The Guardian noted. Hundreds of schools had sent warning letters to parents about dubious claims, and children’s charities are now warning that the threat is “fake news.” They don’t want children to be afraid of using online resources.
One of the original concerns may have been posted in a community Facebook group for Westhoughton on the edge of Bolton, The Guardian shared. From there, her concern spread and grew. BBC had published a story that also included claims that the Momo challenge was being used to harvest information, which has not been proven. BBC has now replaced the article with a story that the Momo Challenge is a hoax. The article acknowledges that unofficial Peppa Pig videos with Momo edited in have been uploaded to YouTube and children may accidentally be exposed to those videos if just searching YouTube, but official videos and channels have not been hacked.
So the conclusion at the moment is that the circulating news that Momo was appearing in legitimate YouTube videos is a hoax and did not happen. However, it is possible that some YouTube account holders had ripped Peppa Pig videos, spliced in a cut of Momo, and uploaded those to YouTube, which might have shown up in regular YouTube streams if certain keywords were used. But no one has been able to nefariously hack legitimate YouTube accounts and children’s videos.