Things to know about a meme called MoMo:
According to NYMag.com, MoMo’s image was taken from an art sculpture that was created back in 2016. It’s called Mother Bird and it was designed by artists who work at Link Factory, a Japanese special effects company, and it’s currently on display at the Vanilla Gallery in Tokyo.
The artists who created it have not been linked to the online hoax called the MoMo Challenge. Dr. Robert Bartholomew Ph.D. From Psychologytoday.com suggests, “Like many past social panics, it is driven by misinformation and a grain of truth. There are many online dangers today, MoMo isn’t one of them.”
According to Chartered Psychologist Allison Keating from the B Well Clinic, to help children who have been affected by the meme, “Caregivers should encourage them to talk about it, and when they get stuck on the part that scares them the most, help them change the story – make the character more manageable. Imagine together that it has silly shoes or a funny hat, add amusing music or make it do silly things. Fear is worse when it is left hanging. By taking on the narrative yourselves, it helps your child to put a cap on it and only then can they move past it.”
