A 5-year-old boy, terrified by the character known as "Momo," dialed 911 to report the bug-eyed ghoul.
A 5-year-old boy, terrified by the character known as "Momo," dialed 911 to report the bug-eyed ghoul.
Momo, the figure at the center of the "Momo Challenge," has been popping up on social media in recent days after multiple police departments posted warnings about the dangerous social media game, which apparently urges kids to kill themselves.
"Hello, I'm scared," little Giovanni Pedroza of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was recorded telling the dispatcher, Natalie Gurule. He explained the creepy creature.
"Are you going to find her?" he went on to ask.
A patient Gurule reassured Giovanni that Momo is not real.
"It's fake, and they're just trying to scare kids like you," she told him. "... It's not real, and if anybody asks you to do anything like that, you always tell your mom and dad."
After successfully talking the boy down, Gurule and Giovanni got to meet in person on Friday, where Giovanni confirmed he now understands he's safe.
“I just close my eyes and was thinking that the 'Momo Challenge' was right there,” he told reporters when asked why he called police.
Gurule has even inspired Giovanni to pursue being a police officer when he grows up, he said.
And if he gets scared again? Gurule told Giovanni to just give her a call.
"You can call me anytime, OK?" she said.
"OK," he replied.
The challenge is not new, having surfaced multiple times last year, including in a report of a girl who allegedly took her own life in her family's back yard as a result of the game.
Some parents say the creature has appeared suddenly in YouTube Kids videos, threatening to kill.
But is it all a hoax? YouTube said it found no sign of Momo popping up on its platform recently.
"Contrary to press reports, we’ve not received any recent evidence of videos showing or promoting the 'Momo Challenge' on YouTube," a company spokesperson said in a statement. "Content of this kind would be in violation of our policies and removed immediately."
Inside Edition spoke to cybersecurity expert Parry Aftab, who advised parents it's better to be safe than sorry.
"Teach your kids to talk to you, come to you when things go wrong and not believe everything they see on the internet," she said.
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