After “Blue Whale” now “Momo Whatsapp” challenge targeting youths in North East

TRIPURA:ASSAM

After the horrific reports of “Blue Whale Suicide Challenge” subsided, a new challenge has been going viral on the WhatsApp, encouraging suicides amongst teenagers.

Momo Suicide Challenge – which features a disturbing image of an artwork, a girl’s distorted face with bulging face with bulging eyes – has emerged as the new horror for the security agencies across the globe.

The first victim of the challenge in the Northeast has been reported from Tripura. As per media reports, a person from Teliamura town in tripura has received a WhatsApp message from an unknwon number with the face of the creepy girl on August 12.

As said, the artwork (creepy girl), called Mother Bird by Link factory, creates curiosity in the recipient of the message, challenging them to communicate with an unknown number. Brikeswar told media that the number even tried to call him on WhatsApp which he did not receive and later, he blocked the number.

It may be mentioned that a 12-year-old girl from Argentina recently died after particiapting in the ‘Momo Suicide Challenge’. The girl reportedly received messages from an unknown individual named ‘Momo’. The girl recorded a video saying that she committed suicide because of Momo, as per media reports.

The Momo challenge is going viral in Japan, Colombia and Mexico and reportedly targets teenagers between 13 and 19 years of age with self-esteem issues. Momo’s account and the number have neen circulating also through Facebook and Youtube.

Similar to the ‘Blue Whale challenge’ the “Momo Challenge” persuades the WhatsApp user to or even to some extent forces the person to follow the vidoes sent by the ‘Momo user’ which are usually disturbing and violent images alng with threatening the recipient if they refuse to participate.

In the “Blue Whale Challenge”, the particiapnt is asked to perform 50 tasks for 50 days, with the last task being the most dangerous often asking the player to commit suicide. Number of deaths were reported in India last year due to the “Blue Whale Challenge”.

It may be informed that the image of a creepy woman was originally shared on Reddit. It is a sculpture named “Mother Bird”, created by Midori Hayashi and is on display at the Tokyo Vanilla Gallery, Japan. However, the artist is not associated with the challenge.

Security agencies across the globe have appealed the parents to monitor their wards and keep a tab on their usage of mobile phones and accordingly initate police’s intervention if found anything suspicious.