Mother warns of MoMo suicide game after her son, 8, was asked to stab himself in neck with kitchen knife

A mother has warned parents to be careful about a popular online suicide game after her son was told by the game to stab himself in the neck with a kitchen knife.

Lyn Dixon's eight-year-old son is one of the latest children to become ensnared by the Momo Challenge, a game which is played on WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube and other online platforms. The mother, from Edinburgh, said the game encourages children to harm themselves.  

The game, which features the creepy face of a bulgy-eyes female character, encourages children to self-harm and has sparked worldwide concern.

The creepy character was created by Japanese special effects firm Link Factory, but the company is not involved in the online suicide game. 

Ms Dixon said her young boy became frightened of the dark and was scared to be alone after Momo appeared on YouTube videos he was watching.

The song on YouTube goes:

Momo Momo

Momo's going to kill you.

At night, she'll come when you're in bed.

In the morning, you'll be dead.

Momo Momo

Momo's going to kill you.

Do you want a surprise? 

Look in her eyes.

I won't lie, you're going to die.

Commenting on how her son was influenced by the game, Ms Dixon said:

He showed me an image of the face on my phone and said that she had told him to go into the kitchen drawer and take out a knife and put it into his neck.

We've told him it's a load of rubbish and there are bad people out there who do bad things but it's frightening, really frightening.

The challenge is handled by an anonymous controller who encourages children to take steps towards gradually hurting and isolating themselves from the world as the controller plots their demise. They are then eventually told to kill themselves.

Ms Dixon added:

It started with him not wanting to go upstairs on his own because it was dark up there.

He was terrified and wouldn't sleep in his own bed and then we got to the bottom of it and we explained it wasn't real.

Warnings about the game have been issued in Argentina after a 12-year-old girl took her own life and the death was linked to the game.

Also, a French father filed a complaint with the State Department in November, after his son took his own life. And the Belgian Public Prosecutor's Office reported in November 2018 that a 13-year-old boy had been the victim of the "Momo Challenge" and hanged himself. 

A mother also took to a Scottish Facebook group to tell of how her niece was told to "sacrifice" herself for her brother.